This Saturday, the training participants discussed risk factors such as drugs, drug addiction, and smoking. These risk factors are like a minefield. Peer pressure, simple curiosity, escaping from problems, low self-esteem, and ignorance of the consequences can lead us into this minefield. At first glance, it seems like a nice place, but if we look closer, we’ll see a horrific picture of ruined lives, shattered futures, unbearable pain, and death… Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

Warning signs are there, but we tend to ignore them and convince ourselves that “this doesn’t apply to me,” “I’ll just do it once”…. But the reality is different. Even a single use of a narcotic substance can lead to addiction. Drugs (from the Greek word meaning “paralysis” or “numbness”) shrink the brain (causing epilepsy and paranoia), “cement” the spinal cord, and destroy the central nervous system and the liver, leading to a “lack” of immunity. And this leads to a multitude of serious comorbidities that kill a person. Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

Smoking is the next major risk factor. More people die from this harmful habit in a single year than from drugs and AIDS combined. A single cigarette contains 4,000 different toxic chemicals. The four most harmful substances are: Nicotine—which causes addiction—carbon monoxide (an oxygen blocker), tobacco tar/resin (a carcinogen), and radioactive polonium (a mutagen). All these substances cause various types of cancer and chronic diseases. No organ system remains unaffected. Cigarettes, cigars, hookahs, e-cigarettes (vapes), tobacco heating systems (e.g., IQOS), and other forms of tobacco use have consequences that will manifest sooner or later. And these consequences will affect not only smokers but also their loved ones.
The entire presentation on the harmful effects of drugs and smoking was accompanied by videos showing what happens to the body. In them, crippled drug addicts, writhing in agony on their deathbeds, begged young people not to use drugs. In them, smokers with amputated legs and transplanted lungs begged that no one ever start smoking…

Our trainees have likely decided for themselves that they won’t “venture” into any high-risk areas and will always pay attention to warning signs, because they’ve come to realize that there will always be consequences. And those consequences will ruin their happy future.