Drugs are a part of pop culture. Heroin, crack, weed, and LSD are a few of the illegal drugs, but there are legal drugs that are just as bad for you. Alcohol and tobacco are legal drugs, and they are absolutely awful for you. Honestly, marijuana is less bad for you than cigarettes and snuff tobacco. Cigarettes are tobacco based, but they are mixed with many other chemical agents called carcinogens. Carcinogens are cancer-inducing agents and there are hundreds of them present in just one cigarette. Movies have made cigarettes a part of the mainstream culture, and lobbyists have allowed for the use of tobacco to persist. Snuff is tobacco that people chew in their mouth. This causes mouth cancer and can even cause throat cancer as well. I am not pro-marijuana, but marijuana would be better to legalize than to have cigarettes and other forms of tobacco remain legal. Prolonged use of cigarettes can end up coating a smoker’s lungs in tar. Not only do cigarettes harm the user, but secondhand smoke exposure harms the people around the smoker. One of my family friends died of lung cancer due to secondhand smoke exposure. She never picked up a cigarette, never picked up a cigar, but had to suffer the consequences of someone else’s cigarette use. Marijuana is hallucinogenic in nature, but it is not nearly as impactful as cigarettes. There has been a push recently for the legalization of marijuana all over the country because of this reason. Marijuana in its pure state lacks many of the carcinogenic agents of cigarettes which in the long run, is better for our health.  No drugs are good for your body, but some are less bad for your body.
Alcohol is another drug that has been popularized by mainstream media. It is constantly depicted in movies and TV shows, but alcohol is terrible for your liver. In excess, it can overwhelm your liver. I have had two family members die of liver and pancreatic cancer due to excessive drinking.

Alcohol is a part of our culture. Even during the Super Bowl, commercials and advertisements for alcohol are incessant. These ads make alcohol seem like less of a danger to people than it really is. Drugs are awful for your body. They can impair your judgement, harm others around you, and ruin your own body. I am anti-drug use, but I know it is inevitable in everyday life. Societal interactions have become based around drug use. Where do people go after work? They go to a happy hour in a bar. What do we drink when we go to an NFL football game? We drink beer. Whether we intended for it or not, drug use has become engrained in our societal normalities. Drug use is in movies, social media, TV shows, sporting events, and so many other mediums that influence our society. When we think of drugs, we think of the illegal drugs like methamphetamine, heroin, cocaine, and marijuana, but what about the legal ones? Alcohol and tobacco are two legal drugs that ruin your body and impair your judgment almost as much as the illegal drugs or perhaps even more than the illegal drugs. Alcohol and tobacco never seem to get the bad label they deserve. Their labels just say, “use responsibly”.  If we are truly being a responsible society, we would not condone the use of any drugs. Alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and other drugs are all dangerous to your body, and pop culture should not condone the use of any of these drugs.