People who take unprescribed drugs are at risk of many health problems. It is more than likely that you or someone you know has taken unprescribed drugs due to the fact that 4.3 million Americans engage in non-medical prescription drugs in a month. 

What parts of the brain do drugs mostly affect, you may ask? Or how will the drugs affect these specific parts of the brain?

The National Institute on Drug Abuse tells us that drugs will mostly affect your limbic system, cerebral cortex, and the brain stem of your brain. Drugs affecting your limbic system will mess with your controls that control your emotional responses, and the good behavior that motivates us to do something again. Drugs affecting your cerebral cortex will cause troubles with your five senses, vision, hearing, taste, touch, and smell, and will affect your thinking center. Your thinking center is basically your ability to solve problems, think, plan, and make decisions. And last but not least, drugs affecting your brain stem will cause it to be harder for them to breathe, move blood, digest food and will affect their spinal cord which controls our muscles and limbs. 

Some other questions you may ask about drugs are can or how addiction varies, and what happens if you try to stop using the drug? You may also ask about drug facts that no one really talks about.

In an article the Mayo Clinic has, they told us how addiction can vary due to the type of drug you are consuming. For example, if the drug is very strong it will be easier for you to get addicted compared to a drug that doesn’t really do anything, however this isn’t a reason to take less stronger drugs. Also after taking a drug for a long period of time you need more of the drug to feel the same as you did when you barely started, since your tolerance goes up. Also attempting to stop using the drugs can make you feel physically ill. This is telling us how even if they try to stop it takes over and makes them sick to the point where they depend on the drugs. This shows us how addiction starts to occur.

The Gateway Foundation tells us that there are different ways that people take drugs in different ways, the three main ways being injection, inhalation, and ingestion. They also tell us that drugs can affect behavior on paranoia, aggressiveness, hallucinations, addictions, impaired judgment, impulsiveness, and loss of self control. Another thing they tell us is that 4.3 million Americans engage in non- medical use of prescription drugs in a month and Initial drug use can be voluntary, drugs can alter brain chemistry. 

In conclusion, there are many health problems that can come with taking illegal drugs/ unprescribed drugs. As you can see the long term effects of these drugs if you start to use them or get addicted.