Drug abuse in today’s generation, isn’t taken seriously enough. In the wake of Lamar Odom’s drug induced coma, discussions have begun circling around the lack of seriousness surrounding the issue of drug abuse.

If you where to go around this campus and ask students and the administration alike if drug abuse is tolerated on this campus, the answer would be a collective “no.” Likewise, if you where to ask the same group if drug abuse was controlled adequately and prevented on this campus the answer would again be an unequivocal, collective “yes.”

Yet the trouble doesn’t arrive from the efforts to hinder drug abuse within the young adults that make up the Los Medanos College student body and young staff, it arises in the mindset of the generation of 18 to 25-year-olds, which make up roughly seventy percent of the student body.

According to recent data from drugabuse.gov, this same group currently holds the title of being in the age group where drug abuse is most common.

We used the Odom incident as an example impart because it is recent, but also due to its  pop culture relevancy.

Lamar Odom is an extremely wealthy NBA player and he is apparently fond of prostitutes. He is also a father of three, and described as a kind person.

Why is all of this relevant? What does the Odom incident and its pop culture ties have to do with drug abuse with the young adults of LMC? This is a famous individual who, just like most people have people who love him and a reputation to uphold, and he’s still impacted by the harmful effects of addictive substances. We focused briefly on him being found unconscious and even then, people made a joke out it while his life hung in the balnce.

Even sadder is the fact that most people have chosen to focus on the fact that he and  Khloe Kardashian have decided to remain married. He’s awake now and his brain is functioning properly but this doesn’t mean we can’t open a dialogue about the rampantly ignored drug use in our society.

You should care because whether you want to accept it or not drug abuse, and the previously mentioned issues, effects our lives day in and day out. It matters because 40,000 people die every year from illicit illegal drug use and prescription drug abuse.