Risky Business Final Essay

Risky Business Essay

            With the generation now days, it’s the new “it” thing for teenagers to get drunk or high. But such thing is illegal for a minor and if caught with such item, you can get arrested. That's why teens are turning to household items, manipulating their purpose to get a high or drunk. Since drugs and alcohol are hard to obtain, teens are turning to household items to abuse to get the “buzz” because they’re cheaper and more easily accessible.

            With this topic not being too talked about, some might not even think this is a problem because they’re focusing on the more mainstream topics that teenagers suffer from. For example, alcohol, weed, and drugs. When people hear that teenagers are abusing household products to get the “buzz”, they don’t really take it in and consider the fact that this is a really dangerous problem that has already gotten tons of teenagers killed. Also, some people may even think that this isn’t as bad as other growing problems out there such as alcohol and drug abuse. Even though those things are illegal or have an age limit, it doesn’t necessarily mean that abusing household items isn’t as dangerous.  Because household items isn’t illegal and its very easy to attain. Kids are turning to the fact that they can search on the Internet to learn how to abuse such items. For example, hand sanitizer. According to an article online from Medill reports Chicago; the California poison control system received at least 60 reports of teenagers drinking hand sanitizer since 2010. There have also been five reported cases of such products being ingested for abuse purposes in 2012, but none were teenagers. And in 2011 in Illinois 11 cases were reported, of 11 two involved teenagers. Although these statistics may be low, it shouldn’t be overlooked. Kids have figured out that there is a very high alcohol content in the item and they go on the Internet to learn how to separate the item to only get the alcohol. While other kids drink the sanitizer straight up.

            Abusing such items also causes some major health effects that may damage you both long and short term. According to an article on selfgrowth.com some short-term effects it may give you are dizziness, hallucinations, anger, dazed, excessive tiredness, slurred speech and feeling light headed.  Although you may not think these side effects are that serious, there are some long-term effects that may also occur when doing such things. For example, severe mood swings, depression, becoming suicidal, unable to concentrate, easily agitated, personality changes and memory loss. Then of course with excessive usage of abusing household items there is also the risk of brain damage and death. “A very common inhalant that teenagers find easily and readily available is Dust-off. It is a spray used to clean computers. When this chemical is inhaled (also known as dusting) it gives someone an intense high and causes dizziness for approximately 10 seconds.” Because teens are willing to try anything now days, they resort to abusing household items. They think that the product “Dust-off” is just compressed air into a can and is harmless but their wrong. “Dust-off” contains many harmful chemicals that can cause death such as difluroethane, a propellant like R2. A chemical like this is a heavy gas and expands n the lungs when breathed in and will not let oxygen enter the lungs. As a result, the gas reduces the oxygen to the heart and the brain, which may result in death.

So why do kids experiment with such things? There are many different possibilities on why teens choose to abuse household items but some main ones are the pressure to “fit in”. If kids at their school do such stuff all the time and think it’s no big deal, they might feel the need to do the same things as them as well. Or maybe you're the new kids in school and you get into the wrong crowd. You try to fit in with everybody and you end up doing the bad things you knew you would never do. Then there’s also the factor that they may have been peer pressured into doing so, and they had a positive effect on them, which made them want to continue to do it. And with the generation now days, teenagers think it’s cool to get drunk or high because of media influence. Especially because of how it is portrayed in rap music, movies and etc. It talks about the great things that come with doing these types of drugs. They influence kids in music videos/ movies that having that sort of lifestyle is great and fun. From abusing these household items, teens like the “effect” they get from it and they feel as if they’re more “grown up”. Another reason why teenagers abuse household items is because they are easily accessible and it’s sometimes very affordable. Since its very easy to walk into a drugstore and buy these items, its not that hard to obtain. And sometimes it may even be at your home. Some items that may be abuses are whipped cream cans, aerosol, cough syrup, nutmeg, hand sanitizers and man more other products.

            Some may think abusing household items still isn’t a problem after reading this, but it is. With kids experimenting and willing to try new things, teens shouldn’t be worries about not trying something just to fit in because in the long run, its better for your life and you might just save your own.