CUBAN TEENAGERS TALK ABOUT ADDICTION

By Miriam García Hernández


- Riiiiing, riiiiing!

Another useful day in school is finished. Boys and girls left high school for today to return home. Glad and boisterous, they comment the incidents of the day, make plans. Suddenly, a group stops full of curiosity: very still on the turf of the park, there is a man. Some of the youngsters approach expectantly:


- Is he dead? – one of them say.

-. No, another boy answers , worse than that: he is drunk.

- How can you say “worse than that”? There is nothing worse than be dead! – a third boy complains.

- Well – a fourth student takes part- he meant that it is worse because to be drunk it is to be dead in life.

As a journalist, the subject interests me. I approach them.

- Excuse me, if you´re not in a hurry, I´d like to talk to you. I´m a journalist.

Introductions, kisses, handshakes, and soon after we are seated and willing to talk.
Journalist: -Do you like to be free?

Ana Sofía: Of course! That´s out of question.

Ismel: Yes, but there are some young people that likes libertinism.

Lena: Oh, boy! We know there are some people that confuse terms- To enojoy freedom it must be regulated, in order to respect the human beings.

Delis: So, it is like peace. Somebody has said that it is the respect to the other people's rights.

Endy: Gee, how many philosophers we have here! I had thought we were going to talk about the drunk man, but now I see the subject is another one.

Journalist: No, you will see the subject remains the same; but since you went ahead, please tell me, do you know what is a toxic substance?

Endy: That one that damage health and alters the people´s behavior, like alcohol and cigarettes, for instance.

Liz: Aah! And if you know that, why do you smoke?

Tania: Because he wants to be a man in advance. .. but the cigarette has dominated him!

Endy: Why are you kidding me? I do not need cigarettes to be a man and nobody dominates me! I smoke because I want to, because my parents also some, and some friends of mine.

Liz: So, you like to imitate bad examples, you let yourself to be taken by the excitement. That isn´t intelligent. Leave it, boy, you can!

Amaury: Let me say something. There is no reason that justifies the addiction to a toxic substance. My grandmother doesn´t smoke nor drink, but if she doesn´t drink a a whole coffee pot a day, she complains she´s nervous and she has a headache; and if she drinks, then the excess of caffein prevent her of sleeping and she´s upset. It´s a repetitive cycle.

Journalist: It´s a mistake to think that drugs don´t create an increasing habit more and more and that they help to calm the nerves, when it is the other way around. It has been scientifically proved that alcohol and nicotine, for instance, have an exciting effect on the nervous system; therefore, they increase the level of anxiety in the people. We musn´t forget that they cause serious diseases, like cancer. Only imagine how much damage several of those combined substances do to our health.

Ana Sofía: You know Renecito´s case, the student in my group. The poor boy, he´s deadly ashamed about the way his father walks drunk and scandalizing.

Ismel: He says that his papa drinks rum and it´s him who is drunken. Between the pain he suffers and the arguments at home, he´s so upset he hardly slepps and he can´t pay attention to classes.

Journalist: Before approaching a toxic substance, you should think there´s always a beloved one at least who´s going to suffer terribly by that cause. To those that have already succumbed to the consumption, we must persuade them so that they leave it; we must help them so that they understand they have a serious problem, and is very important that they are put under an suitable treatment, in order that they can obtain a better style of life. The only solution is to avoid the toxic addictions at all costs, to know how to say NO on time, because alcohol and cigarettes open the doors to the addiction to other drugs.