Stating the Problem
- Substance abuse is the leading cause of preventable deaths in America and worldwide.
- It greatly influences one’s cognitive abilities and makes one severely dependent on the entity they consume.
- The most common substances can be divided into two categories: legal and illegal. Legal substances relate to all kinds of alcohol, painkillers, tranquilizers, and some kinds of stimulants, while illegal ones are hallucinogens, cocaine, and marijuana (Kim et al., 2019).
- Substance residue can enter the sewer system, impacting water supply and the surface waters. Some drugs, just as the utensils they were used from, have the ability to stay within the soil and livestock (Szyszkowicz et al., 2018). Direct emissions of substance manufactures influence the quality of air around people and animals alike (Szyszkowicz et al., 2018).
- The current situation with substance abuse is harmful not only to the human population, but also to the surrounding animals such as opossums, which could potentially have new forms of mutations as well as less chances to survive.
Opossum’s Standpoint
- Consuming something that is not food is rather dangerous, which reduces the chances of survival.
- People ruin their lives, and relieve their aggression caused by substance stimulations onto the innocent animals.
- Waste from the drugs and alcohol such as syringes, empty bottles, packs of cigarettes are often thrown into environment and sometimes inexperienced animals consume them, which intoxicates their body and makes them die.
- Substance residue is everywhere: it can affect the water everyone consumes, the soil, the livestock, the animals.
The Harm Inflicted by Substance Abuse
- About a half of suicides and violent crimes are caused by substance abuse (Kim et al., 2019). More than a half road accidents are related to the excessive consumption of drugs and alcohol, who knows how many road accidents related to drugs are killing innocent opossums. The majority of domestic violence reports are caused by or related to substance abuse (Kim et al., 2019). The majority of animal-related violence is connected to substance abuse.
- Drugs and alcohol gravely influence one’s body and brain. First, it affects the immune system, weakening it and making it severely dependent on the substance (Kim et al., 2019). Second, drugs can cause an increase in the aggressive behaviors of a human being, which directly affects the opossum population, since violent humans usually tend to kill the nearby animals with excessive cruelty.
- (Concession) While it is true that substances are harmful both for humans and for the opossums, some people use it to relieve their pain and forget about the routine surrounding them. Unlike people, opossums use food and sleep to relax, which is the best stimulus one can use for their brain. However, humans tend to complicate their rest and consume hallucinogens in order to become calmer. Nevertheless, instead of intended effect, a human, who consumes substances get desired effect only when they are consuming. But in other cases, they are severely aggressive and nauseous.
The Conversation
Opossum: Why do people need to consume harmful substances if they are not even tasty and they do not nourish a person’s body?
Respondent: Well, we use it to relax and forget about our problems: work, family, some other issues that occur in life. Alcohol and drugs can be useful for that!
Opossum: Relaxing does not mean that you need to destroy your body, mind, and environment. Not to mention that substances are the leading cause of preventable death within humans.
Respondent: I care less about the environment, since I have lots of problems that directly affect me, and I need to get away from them.
Opossum: You know, instead of getting away from problems, you should try dealing with them. I know how easy and tempting it is to ‘play dead’ when problems strike, but is it worth dying over a questionable relaxing method?
Respondent: You should not care about the way people relax from their routine. They want excitement, and that is what substances present.
Opossum: But we are the ones suffering from that choice! Our homes are ruined, our water and food – poisoned and all because of your selfish decisions. We would appreciate if humans would be more concerned about the environment if they care less about themselves.
Respondent: Well, we could try implementing more facilities that help people overcome substance abuse, new psychological centers for addicts. While it is not a perfect solution, it would help in reducing the consequences of our actions.
References
Kim, E., Gilman, A., Kosterman, R. & Hill, K. (2019). Longitudinal associations among depression, substance abuse, and crime: A test of competing hypotheses for driving mechanisms. Journal of Criminal Justice, 62, 50-57. Web.
Szyszkowicz, M., Thomson, E., Colman, I. & Rowe, B. (2018). Ambient air pollution exposure and emergency department visits for substance abuse. PLoS ONE 13(6), e0199826. Web.