Healthy, happy people don’t need drugs. Drugs are supposed to be used for treating or preventing diseases or for relieving pain and suffering. Paracetamol, for example, is great for headaches.
But drugs can be dangerous if we use too much of them or take them for the wrong reasons. Some drugs make your body dependent on them. When this happens, your body needs more and more of the drug. If you stop taking it, then you feel terrible. Many people who become dependent on drugs end up destroying their bodies.
That is why there are laws that control how drugs are sold and used.
You can buy some drugs in supermarkets and chemist shops. Some of these drugs aren’t addictive and you would have to take an awful lot of them to do yourself any harm. Do you know the names of these drugs?
Other drugs can only be sold to adults. Why do you think we have this law?
To buy some drugs, you need a prescription from your doctor. This is because some drugs are only meant to be used for specific illnesses and only a doctor can tell if you need them. Next time you get a prescription from your doctor, ask:
How does it work?
Does it have any side effects?
Is it dangerous if you take too much?
Some drugs are so dangerous that they aren’t allowed, even with a prescription. It’s a crime to have these drugs. Do you know the names of some of these drugs?
Sometimes things that aren’t drugs are used as drugs. Sniffing glue, chrome and petrol can give you a funny feeling, a bit like a drug. They kill parts of your brain and they can even kill you.
Find the facts
Find a web site that gives you information about the dangers of drinking alcohol and smoking – and the laws that control them.
Let’s explore
Help your parents clean out your family’s medicine cupboard. DON’T DO IT ON YOUR OWN. Use this list to rearrange the cupboard.
Is it locked or out of reach of small children?
Are there warnings on some of the containers?
Put all the drugs you can buy in the supermarket together.
Put all the prescription drugs together.
Get rid of any drugs that have passed their use-by date.
If no one can remember what a drug is for get rid of it.
What have we learnt?
Drugs can help us, but they can also be very dangerous.
The law controls how we use different types of drugs.
If someone other than our parents or a doctor or nurse offers us a drug we should just say NO!
