Reasons to Refuse to Use

Your health. The law. Your parents. Yes. Yes. Yes. You don’t want to go to jail. You don’t want to die young. You don’t want to disappoint your folks. These are probably some of the first things you think of when you think about why not to use drugs. And they are probably the best reasons not to use. Health, freedom, and family are top priorities in any book.

So these may be the best reasons not to use drugs, but they aren’t the only reasons. There are probably as many reasons not to use drugs as there are good, valuable, fun things in the world. Here’s five positive reasons to refuse to use.

Number One: Change the Image Debate

You want to keep a cool image, right? Who says a druggie image is cool? Drugs ruin users’ healthy good looks. Drug users are weaker than nonusers are, because even short-term drug use causes lung damage, fatigue, heart rate and blood pressure changes, and other weakening physical damage. Plenty of drugs give users body odor or cause acne. This is not a cool image.

Change the debate by denying that the so-called druggie chic is an image worth pursuing. Remind yourself and your friends how much better you’ll look, feel, perform, and smell if you stay off drugs. Refusing to use drugs enhances your cool image.

Number Two: Green Party

A drug user lays out a lot of green to maintain his or her habit. Drugs are expensive! Here’s two examples:

• The average cigarette or chewing tobacco habit $5 a day; that’s $35 a week, and $1825 a year! Just think of all the great stuff you could buy with an extra $35 a week.
• College students who drink spend more on alcohol than they spend on soft drinks, tea, milk, juice coffee and books combined.

And those are the drugs that are legal for adults. Imagine how much of the green stuff someone could waste on illegal drugs.

Don’t suppose that if someone offers you drugs free one time that you’ll always get them for free. Before long, they’re going to want something in return, whether it’s cash, trade, or sex. A drug dealer is not operating a charity.

Okay, it may be perfectly selfish, but if you want your toys, you can’t waste your money on drugs.

Number Three: Tick-tock, Tick-tock

Life’s short.

How much of your limited time would you want to waste being out of touch with reality, hunting for drugs, scraping up money for drugs, or recovering from drug hangovers? Drugs are not all about the high. Drug abusers invest an incredible amount of time and energy into serving their drug habits.

It’s not as if they can go to the corner store. It’s not like you can spend the night frying your brain and then spring out of bed to go conquer the business world in the morning.

And someone doesn’t have to be an addict before drug use begins to drain away his or her life. With the time they spend waiting in the alley, sneaking around the corner, and then holding their sore heads the next day, who knows what even occasional drug users could accomplish?

You ever notice how your palmtop or day-planner doesn’t have a category for "Drug-induced Time Wasting?" Think about it.

Number Four: Thanks for the Memories

Just a brief note here:

What do you want to see in your photo album? A super-close up of the toilet bowl "the morning after"? Infected needle tracks? The wrong side of jail cell bars? Nah!

Drugs steal more than your money and your time. They steal your life. They steal your memories. Most drugs cloud your memory during and after use. You don’t want to be 45, saying to yourself, "What ever happened to 2004, ‘05, and ‘06, I wonder?" (That’s assuming you make it to 45 – not really guaranteed for drug users.)

Speaking of being 45 and happy…

Number Five: Future Perfect

Imagine your perfect future life.

Are you a dot-com entrepreneur…Basketball star… Artist…Lawyer… Doctor… or Small business owner? Maybe President of the United States?

Who’s with you? Some fine-looking, intelligent, athletic, fun-loving mate with a great sense of humor? What about kiddies? Pets?

Where are you? Suburban four bedroom …New York loft … beach cottage… a big white farmhouse with lots of horse property?

Or did you want to be alone, unemployed, and living under a bridge?

Some of those options may not be 100% within your control, but going after them is all on you. One thing these dream lives have in common is that they are not compatible with drug use. It just won’t play.

Whether training for your future includes vocational school, college, or the military, drug use will limit your success. For example, alcohol is a factor in 40% of all academic problems among college students. Smoking marijuana causes permanent damage to thinking and reasoning ability! Someone who can’t stay clean isn’t going to achieve in school, in the studio, or on the playing field.

No employer wants a junkie on the payroll, so many of them screen for previous use before hiring. Drugs take their toll on the whole person: thinking, athletics, energy level, health, reliability, and honesty. Plus, if you get caught using, drugs can get you the boot.