Selena Main Soto, a sixth gradeer in the accelerated academy, was the second place winner in the sixth-grade category of the Elks Club's drug awareness essay contest earlier this year. (Click here for more about that contest.) Here she shares her essay:
Did you know that in 2008, 23 million people used drugs? Imagine how many use them now. Three examples of drugs that have been used are cigarettes, steroids, and cocaine.
A cigarette is a small roll of finely cut tobacco leaves wrapped in a cylinder of thin paper for smoking. Cigarettes are sold legally but can harm you and even kill you. They cause cancer, straining your heart, blocking blood vessels, heart attacks, strokes diseases, and etc.
Steroids are a type of organic compound that contains a specific arrangement of four cycloslksine rings that are joined together. Anabolic steroids can weaken the immune system. They can also lead to liver damage or cancer, even in younger people. They can permanently stop bones from growing, too.
Cocaine, a powerful addictive drug, is snorted, injected, or smoked. Cocaine usually makes the user feel euphoric and energetic, but it also increases body temperature, blood pressure, and heart rate. Users risk heart attacks, respiratory failure, strokes, seizures, abdominal pain, nausea, death, and etc.
Now you know the three of the world’s famous drugs. Which is cocaine, steroids, and cigarettes. Remember, these can kill you or cause serious and permanent injuries or damage to your body and your health.
--Selena Marin Soto