Consequences of Drug Abuse: A Drug Abuse Tragedy Unfolding

The consequences of drug abuse can be tragic for individuals, families and communities. People may not realize how serious a scenario can be until it is too late, in other words, when a drug abuse tragedy is unfolding.

This fictional case study examines the scenario of a teenager girl, a victim of drug abuse. Her story reveals the potential consequences of drug abuse, which could be averted by drug abuse intervention.

Maggie has started smoking. Her mother forces her to leave and advises her to move in with her father, several thousand miles away. Doug, her middle-aged father, is excited about Maggie’s imminent arrival. He has not seen her for a long time. He lives alone and purchases a pup, as a gift for her. The pup will be her companion, while he is at work. 

Doug is not a smoker and has no idea Maggie is smoking.

At first, Maggie appears to be a well-mannered, soft-spoken, quiet, young woman and is a joy to her father. Then, she shows no interest in the dog. The dog becomes her father’s constant companion. He even takes it to work.

Maggie seeks out the companionship of other teenagers who are smoking and using street drugs. She goes out with them, night after night and sleeps during the daytime, while her father is at work. When she gets up, she smokes one cigarette after another, at increasingly frequent intervals, supposedly to keep her weight down. What she is smoking smells like different kinds of cigarettes or marijuana, which upsets the neighbors.

Maggie has a change in her physical appearance over the next month. She no longer takes care of herself or her clothing. She walks and talks like someone who is on drugs or has a hangover. She is wearing too much makeup and has acquired a collection of tattoos and earrings. Maggie becomes loud, belligerent and argumentative with her father and others. At times, it appears that in a daze, she cannot find things like her purse and house keys. When she is high on marijuana, she plays loud karaoke music and sings off key, at the top of her lungs.

The neighbors complain to Doug. He tells them they are crazy and what is happening is a figment of their imagination. Doug insists neither of them smoke. He refers to himself as a health nut, but admits he cannot sleep more than several hours. He orders them to leave his daughter alone.

Maggie manages to cover the odor of cigarette and marijuana smoke by using room deodorizers and other kinds of spray, including heavy perfume and aftershave lotion. Doug does not realize that unknowingly, he is gradually becoming addicted to a stimulant in what his daughter is smoking. No wonder he cannot sleep. Neither can his dog.

Maggie and her female friends pick up cigarette butts in smoking areas outside downtown restaurants and other buildings. They are soliciting and bringing different people home, every night.

There are numerous reports of break and entry with robberies in stores, apartment buildings and homes in their area. Coins go missing from local laundromats. People report their clothes stolen from commercial washers and dryers.

Someone reports two tall, thin, teenage girls, with long, pitch-black hair, leaving the laundromat hurriedly, not once, but several times. Maggie and one of her friends have just dyed their hair pitch black.

“Were they natives?” Doug asks them, naively. They were not.

Radios, cds and other items disappear from people’s cars. Someone is also siphoning gasoline gas from cars.

On Doug’s front doorstep stands a dirty, large, tin can filled with old, cigarette butts. Part of a dried marijuana plant tied around it, invites others to help themselves. When asked about it, Doug tosses it in the garbage.

“Do you realize that if someone is trafficking in the area, that all of the drug users in the area will be banging on your door?”

Doug just dismisses the implications.

Several teenage boys spend most of their time at Doug’s home, following an incident where Maggie screams that she wants her own place, so she can do her own thing. Her father spends less and less time at home, but brings over his new girlfriend for the night, so that she can get to know his daughter. They become part of the local, casino crowd. Wild parties take place on a nightly basis in Doug’s home.

Maggie and her friends are no longer smoking just cigarettes or marijuana. They are using heavier drugs, including cocaine and heroin. To cover the odor, they turn on the indoor grill or gas barbecue. At times, they forget to turn off the gas. Neighbors complain about the horrific odor.

Doug begins smoking, too. When spotted smoking with his girlfriend and daughter in his car, he continues to deny that any of them smoke.

“It is our word against yours.”

Maggie has repeated bouts of withdrawal with severe depression, when she has nothing to smoke and spends her times in tears. Her father, to placate her addiction and keep the neighbors from getting suspicious, obtains drugs for her. He comes and goes with his dog, at all hours of the night.

Several people are trafficking in the immediate vicinity. Some have young children. When reported, the police state they can only take action if they catch drug dealers trafficking on the street. They notify the fire department of the potential fire hazard. The fire department parks a fire truck outside their home at midnight, to alert people in the area that there may be a problem.

Meanwhile, the young men who have become drug dealers boast no one can do anything if they smoke inside a residence. They become increasingly aggressive demanding food and money from local residents. At night, they smoke outside the homes of the people they are terrorizing. A number of houses immediately go up for sale.

Doug is seriously into drugs. He disappears for days at a time, leaving the area to obtain more drugs to pacify his own, his daughter’s and her friends' addictions. He is trafficking as an additional source of income, because he has lost his job.

Doug, his girlfriend, daughter and other teenagers arrive home drunk, arguing and fighting in the middle of the night. Several of them, including Maggie, are vomiting. The neighbors are appalled, but close their blinds, as they do not want to become involved.

A gang war begins as various groups vie for the potential drug market. People are afraid and will not leave their homes, particularly at night. The teenagers appear to be taking over the area, using firearms to frighten people or to force them into purchasing what they are selling.

“We can keep you happy for ten dollars a day,” hollers one drug dealer to a young boy, on his way home from high school.

Doug suffers a mild heart attack, after he accidentally runs over his dog.

Maggie pleads with neighbors for food. She tries to find someone to take them in, as Doug has lost their home and they have no place to go. Doug borrows a large sum of money and tries to make more money with it. He tries to sell a car for someone, but he has no vendor’s permit. He gambles at the casino and loses it all. His financial situation steadily gets worse, as he has obtained drugs under false pretenses and cannot pay for them. An out-of-town drug deal threatens him and his daughter, just outside his residence, as neighbors listen to their conversation.

In need of food, Maggie and her friends raid neighborhood garbage bins, salvaging and selling whatever they can find. Instead of trading it and purchasing food, they buy more drugs to satisfy their growing addiction. They steal food from local restaurants and private homes. They are seen raiding drop-off outlets for clothing and other used items, donated to charitable organizations.

Several of the teens including Maggie, caught stealing, charged and confronted with fines, are ordered to do community service work. In court, Doug simply blames her mother for Maggie’s problems. Shortly thereafter, there is a large drug bust in the local area. Doug, charged with drug possession for the purposes of trafficking, goes to jail.

Maggie has to fend for herself. She boasts about her antics and invites neighbors to her wedding. She is pregnant. There is no wedding and the child is born with the symptoms of fetal alcohol syndrome.

Drug and alcohol abuse intervention can prove to be effective, at any time in a scenario like this. 

Unfortunately, for many drug addicts and alcoholics, intervention does not happen early enough and human lives are affected or lost. These are only some of the possible consequences of drug abuse.