Part B

A Victim of Drugs

Margaret frowned as she shook the can of deodorant. It was almost empty but she'd only had it a week -- surely she couldn't have used it all?

The first few times it happened she thought she was getting mixed up. She asked the kids if they'd used it but they said no. So she thought it must have evaporated.

Over the next few months, her 15-year-old daughter Lisa's jewelry began to disappear and so did any loose change. She was worried but she couldn't believe it when her two elder sons blamed their 13-year-old brother Paul for that. Then Paul's school wrote to say he was disruptive and was playing truant. Margaret and her husband tried to talk to him but he just wouldn't listen.

One night Paul was caught breaking into the school and he was expelled. Margaret asked him what was the matter but he just shrugged. During the summer things went downhill. He was always out with a gang of older boys. If she tried to keep him in he'd climb out of a window. She had no control over him. She knew something was wrong but it never occurred to her that he was taking drugs.

One day Margaret got a call from the police -- Paul and a group of older boys had broken into a house. He was found guilty and sent to a remand center for 28 days. But it didn't help. When he came out he was caught stealing car radios and was sent to another remand center for two months.

Soon after he came out, Margaret found cigarette papers in Paul's pockets. Fearing the worst she confronted him. "What's this for?" she asked.

"Cannabis," he replied. "Everybody smokes it."

Margaret was horrified. Then everything clicked into place and she realized Paul had been behaving oddly because of the drugs.

But the worst was yet to come. He was soon found stealing money at home. Margaret reported him to the police to give him a fright, and the police kept him in cells overnight. That night Paul asked for a doctor, complaining of stomach pains. When Margaret went to visit him, she was told that Paul was suffering from heroin withdrawal. Margaret could hardly believe her ears. Cannabis seemed bad enough, but heroin was much worse. She began to read all she could on drug abuse. She learnt about aerosol-sniffing and realized Paul had been getting high on her deodorant. He'd started on aerosols, moved to cannabis and then to heroin. And he was only 15.

When Paul was released, he continued to steal to pay for drugs. Then his downward spiral halted when a sympathetic judge gave him six months' probation and ordered him to attend a drug rehabilitation center.

Paul seemed to be doing well for a while. He was put on a heroin substitute. The stealing stopped as his drugs were now prescribed.

But several years later, Paul, who was high on drugs again, was arrested again for stealing. Two weeks before his 21st birthday, he became so ill with heroin withdrawal that he was moved to hospital.

When Margaret and her husband went to see him he didn't seem like his normal self. He was agitated. "You've been the best mother in the world," he said to Margaret. Then he shook his dad's hand.

The next morning Paul died.

Margaret was so angry that the drugs had won. She said, "Drug addiction is a disease and it beat him. The only winners are the drug dealers who get rich on the suffering of ordinary families like ours."

1. How old was Paul when he first started to get high on a drug-like substance?

2. Which substance did Paul first start to use?

3. How did Margaret get to know that Paul was taking drugs?

4. Why did Margaret report Paul to the police when she found him stealing money at home?

5. Which of the following can be inferred from the text?

6. What was the cause of Paul's death?

Part C

Interview with an Internet Addiction Counselor

Interviewer: Welcome to this edition of Talk of the Nation. I'm Jenny Butler. We're talking this hour about how and why people might become addicted to things other than drugs. Our high-tech society offers new high-tech addictions like video games, online chat rooms, etc. Dr. James at Maryland University has put together a support group for students who find themselves addicted to the Internet. He joins me now from his office in College Park.

James: Thank you very much for inviting me.

Interviewer: Is Internet addiction a relatively new thing?

James: Well, some people have been involved with the Internet for years and may have been addicted for a while. It's certainly growing on college campuses.

Interviewer: How does it present itself?

James: Well, some of them have issues like relationship problems, or problems maintaining their grades because they are spending so much time on the Net.

Interviewer: But I think the computer is a very positive thing. I myself have a strong urge to go surfing on the Net whenever I have time. How do I know when my impulse to go online will turn me into an Internet addict?

James: Uh... I'm not sure the exact amount of time is really the issue, but I think if it begins to affect other areas of your life, such as your work or school performance or your relationships with other people. One of the problems with the Internet, especially the chat rooms, is that people start developing relationships over the Net and they are very different from relationships that you have on a face-to-face basis, and you start losing some of the skills that make relationships successful. So that's a warning signal. But I think a real important thing is to examine what's going on with you when you are not on the Net. If you are beginning to feel anxious or depressed or empty or lonely and you know you really look forward to those times when you can be online to be connected with other people in that way, then, I think, a serious issue is starting to happen.

Interviewer: What if you start giving up other things, like going out for a walk... is that a symptom?

James: Well, people have to make choices every day about the different activities that they're going to do. I think it's helpful to have some sort of balance in your life. If you can, spend some time on the Internet and then take a walk at a different time of the day. In fact, one of the things that we suggest in the group is to somehow break the pattern. Go out and take a walk, and then come back before you get back online.

Interviewer: So that's how we can avoid Internet addiction. Thank you very much, Dr. James.

James: Thank you.

1. What is the name of the program?

2. What is the topic of this edition?

3. What are the harmful effects of Internet addiction?

4. What are the warming signals that show you are starting to get addicted?

5. How to avoid the Internet addiction according to Dr. James?

Part D

Drug Abuse

Drug abuse is characterized by taking marijuana, cocaine, heroin, or other illegal substances. Legal substances, such as alcohol and nicotine, are also abused by many people. Abuse of drugs and other substances can lead to physical and psychological dependence.

Drug abuse can cause a wide variety of adverse physical reactions. Long-term drug use may damage the heart, liver, and brain. Drug abusers may suffer from malnutrition if they habitually forget to eat, cannot afford to buy food, or eat foods lacking the proper vitamins and minerals. Individuals who use injectable drugs run the risk of contracting infections such as hepatitis and HIV from dirty needles or needles shared with other infected abusers. One of the most dangerous effects of illegal drug use is the potential for overdosing -- that is, taking too large or too strong a dose for the body's systems to handle. A drug overdose may cause an individual to lose consciousness and to breathe inadequately. Without treatment, an individual may die from a drug overdose.

Drug addiction is marked by a compulsive craving for a substance. Successful treatment methods vary and include psychological counseling, or psychotherapy, and detoxification programs, which are medically supervised programs that gradually stop an individual from craving for a drug over a period of days or weeks. Detoxification and psychotherapy are often used together.

The illegal use of drugs was once considered a problem unique to residents of poor, urban neighborhoods. Today, however, people from all economic levels, in both cities and suburbs, abuse drugs. Some people use drugs to relieve stress and to forget about their problems. For others, genetic factors may be the reason why they become drug addicts. Environmental factors such as peer pressure, especially among young people, and the availability of drugs, also influence people to abuse drugs.

1. What substances are mentioned in the passage in relation to drug abuse?

2. What may long-term drug use damage?

3. What kind of risk do users of injectable drugs run?

4. What drug addiction treatment methods are mentioned in the passage?

5. Why do people abuse drugs?