The effects of drug abuse touch the lives of many people who know the person who abuses the drug. According to National Institute on Drug Abuse, the annual cost of substance abuse within the United States is over half a trillion dollars due to the health problems, increased crime rates and loss of productivity that result. In addition, drug abuse can deeply affect the friends of the drug abuser.
Basics
Drug abuse generally leads to broken relationships or the maintenance of stormy and negative relationships. People lose relationships with friends who were once very close to because drug abuse takes over that person's life.
Exposure to Violence
When a friend abuses drugs, he will continue to use the drug despite the negative consequences it is having on friendships. He may even break the trust of friends by lying and stealing from them in order to get the funding to buy his drugs.
Also, friends might be put in harm's way because they are exposed to drug dealers and the violence that are often associated with them. Friends might also be exposed to the abuser's own violence and aggression when he is intoxicated or high on drugs.
Considerations
Drug abuse among friends my lead to the use of drugs by people who may not have been tempted to use in the first place. According to TeensHealth.org, teens are often pressured into using drugs when peers close to them use drugs. Therefore, when a teen is exposed to a friend or friend group who is using drugs, she may be pressured or tempted to use drugs as a result of the social pressures she is exposed to.
Significance
Drug abuse among friends may play a significant role in the amount of drugs that are abused and the high risk behaviors that are engaged in while people are under the influence. When drugs are abused in friend groups, friends are likely to become more vulnerable to peer pressure and challenge one another to engage in increasingly higher risk activities without thought of the consequences.
Loss
Problems with drug abuse can be serious enough to take the life of a friend. The MayoClinic.com reports that people who experience problems with drugs are more likely to commit suicide and may die as a result of an accident related to drug use or overdose. The friends left behind must get through the pain of the loss of the drug abuser, whose life was taken early as a result of drugs.
