LOCAL YOUTH WRITES ABOUT USING DRUGS

When most people think of a homeless person, they think of older
people hanging out, the fact of the matter is that most homeless are
youth. A prime reason for this is family stress and drugs.

As a result of not having adequate treatment resources, most homeless
people are brought down by drug use. Not all "people without homes"
are youth. There are people of all ages living either on the streets
or in make-shift shelters made of whatever they could find in their
surroundings.

There are many reasons why youth end up on the streets.
Family-related problems, drugs, alcohol, or in many cases violence
and abuse drive them out of the home.

There are countless youth all over Canada and the whole world. The
number of homeless increases every year, and very few are sheltered
from drug abuse. These children are thought of as lazy and incapable,
but the sad misfortune is that life is hard. The youth who end up on
the streets often don't attain an adequate education in order to
sustain a job and often people do not want to hire them.

Most of the homeless society are marginalized from the rest of
society and thereby create their own community.

They are often addicted to coke, meth, or heroin. The prolonged side
effects of these drugs are very significant.

When using, your system builds up a tolerance to the pollutants that
are imposed on the drug user, so they have to do more to achieve the
desired high. Also, severe delusions, paranoia and suspiciousness
result in the negative effects of drug use. There can be sever
einternal bleeding, breakdown of muscle tissue leading to kidney
failure, seizures and damage to the blood vessels to the brain (stroke).

The use of drugs on the street is profound. In the worst case
scenario, a highly addicted drug user can end their addictive life in
death due to a drug overdose. Nobody cares who the corpse being
hauled away with the tag on their toe is, or anyone even caring what
their name is.

The necessary steps to getting people off the streets are difficult.
Addiction to drugs is a way of life. You live your life day in and
day out, do whatever you want as your brain disintegrates into a pile
of mush. If you are heavily addicted, you cannot use your own
conscience to get straight. However, if you are under 18, there is a
youth shelter that you can attend for a week. You get a meal, a bed
and a bath. While in the shelter, you have to be straight or you will
be banned from returning. Then you have to leave for two weeks and
then you are allowed back for five days.

If you got lucky, you can get yourself on a list for foster, or
independent living. There are few options for homeless people.

In conclusion, I see it is necessary to achieve a better community
knowledge of what happens on the streets by educating youth and
children of the events preceding homelessness, as well as better
options for rehabilitation. The attitude towards homeless people is a
great downfall in society's perspective. I believe that greater
measures should be taken to educate the entire public on this growing
"epidemic" and try to stop it before it happens, and take a firm grip
on our community's interaction between each other.

This essay was written by a Sooke youth who has first hand knowledge
of homelessness and drug addiction.