Tennessee has four major cities: Nashville, Knoxville, Chattanooga, and Memphis. It is bordered by eight other states and is accessible by numerous state and interstate highways. Because of these factors, it is easy to ship drugs into the state, and Tennessee has become a magnet for Mexican drug cartels. Tennessee has been listed on the Federal Government’s High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) list since 2005 and is ranked second in the nation for violent crime.

This does not bode well for the youth of Tennessee. Drug use is high. Cocaine use is dropping, but that is mostly because the cartels’ delivery lines are being shut down outside of the United States. Within Tennessee’s borders, large quantities of marijuana are still grown, and Tennessee has become the center of the Southeast for illegal methamphetamine lab development. Seventy-five percent of the labs seized by police in the Southeast were in Tennessee.

Tennessee drug treatment facilities are assisting in the battle to control the growing number of illegal drug users. If you are a user and haven’t considered enrolling in a program, now is the time to do so. Perhaps you think the problem will go away on its own. Perhaps you think it isn’t cool or that people will mock you.

The short answer is that it’s your life, not theirs. Are those people going to be waking up in the hospital suffering from a drug overdose? With cocaine use, you run the risk of a heart attack. Mixing drugs is a recipe for disaster. Drug users also risk succumbing to HIV/AIDS, hepatitis B and C, tuberculosis, and any number of other diseases transmitted by needles, inhalants, pipes, or tubes. Consider whether the cost of drug treatment for substance abuse outweighs the bill for hospital care or funeral services.