This video for middle school students explains how the brain develops and how drugs affect the brain. Check out the Mind Matters Series with other drugs and the body related videos and other teaching tools.
Video length: 0:47
Transcript
[Female voice over]
How do drugs work in the brain?
Our body has special cells called neurons that carry messages back and forth to the brain.
Drugs change the way neurons talk to each other.
These changes can cause you to act in ways you normally wouldn't.
Drugs can make you sick and even kill you.
Depending on which drug you take, your breathing could become dangerously slow, and even stop, called an overdose.
Other drugs can give you heart attacks, deadly cancer, or lung problems.