Essay

Picture a dark alley. It is damp and dirty and there is a very distinct smell in the air; a combination of sewage, dumpsters, decaying rats, and the inescapable smell of the homeless. Now imagine a young teenage girl entering, her hair is ratted and greasy, her clothes are old and torn. She looks frightened but you feel that she is determined and desperate. You yell inside yourself for the girl to run but she will never listen. She keeps walking. Suddenly she is gone. Pulled behind a dumpster by men she never expected. Her screaming blends with the screams of the city. No one can hear her. No one cares.

You may ask yourself, “What possessed this girl to put herself in a situation like this?” Well, it’s simple, very sad but simple, nonetheless. She has an increasing addiction to drugs. It has cost her everything. She has no family, no friends, no love, no hope, and no self-respect. She will do anything to get her next fix.

Far beyond anyone’s help this young girl risks her own life to get the one thing that is ruining it. It sounds hard to believe but it is a depressing fact that much of the world is ignoring. Young kids all across the country are getting caught up in drug use more rapidly than before. It is “the cool thing to do” in so many schools and if you don’t have a drug addiction you are seen as a failure.

How did this happen? It is a hard question to answer. With the recent decline in the economy more adults are turning to drugs to fix their problems. Well if a child sees their father or their mother doing drugs why shouldn’t they? Obviously the people that are supposed to be teaching them right from wrong think it is an okay thing to do. Society is becoming weak, always looking for the easy way out of every situation. This will never lead to success. It leads to teenage girls selling their bodies to men old enough to be their fathers so they can get another high. It is a silent tragedy that happens every day. It is truly sickening.

A wakeup call is needed desperately.