Question

Your service club is offering a prize for the best community educational plan. Not only would you love to win the prize, but you think this is a good opportunity to advocate against ATOD abuse. You know that ATOD abuse can be a big problem in a community, and you want to help people learn about it.

Before you start creating your campaign, it's important to research what is going on with ATOD abuse in your community.
1. Using local news media sources, find five news stories related to ATOD abuse in your community. For each news story, identify a barrier that prevented the person or people involved from making better decisions regarding ATOD use.

Answer 1

1. Hailey Hesch started using dr#gs when she was 12 years old. She experimented with a lot of hardcore dr#gs like h3roin. A barrier that prevented her from stopping her addiction to the feeling she got when she took dr#gs. She said it made her feel amazing and really happy.

2. Jeremy B smoked a lot of w33d, drank, fought people, and chased girls around with his friends frequently. After a while, he started to use and experiment with other dr#gs like h3roin and d0pe. A barrier that prevented him from making healthier choices was due to curiosity.

3. Kristina started her dr#g addiction with painkillers she took for an injury. She took them as they were prescribed at first, but after losing an opportunity to get a scholarship, she started abusing the painkillers. However, the painkillers were not enough, so she started using hardcore dr#gs to try to reach a "High". Nothing worked so then she kept abusing them more and more. She noticed that she was becoming very unstable, so she forced herself to get treatment. A barrier that prevented her from making better decisions was because she was blinded by grief and anger.

4. Adam was a 27 year old who was very athletic and smart. No one would have seen it coming, but he died due to a dr#g overdose. There was no one in his entire family that knew about his addiction, and when they found out, it was too late. A barrier that made him addicted is unknown, but some people suspect that it was because of friends or outside influences.

5. Cassie was a smart and successful woman who was very well-rounded. She went to church, donated to charities, and helped children with activities like tutoring and basketball. However, her parents started noticing unusual behavior from her. She shut herself off, had intense mood swings, and looked physically exhaused. Their suspicions were confirmed when she collapsed in the middle of the day. The doctor's diagnosis stated that she overdosed on m3th and that she was in a permanent coma. Later, the doctor broke the awful news to her parents, Cassie had irreversible brain damage and was a lost cause, so she died after being taken off of life support. A barrier that prevented her from making better choices was that no one took action when her behaviour drastically changed.