Drug Abuse In Teenagers

Drug Abuse in Teenagers

Teenage drug abuse exists in the United States and worldwide. Drug abuse is costly to our society as a whole but is especially to our youth. One of the best ways to combat the drug use among teenagers is to begin prevention efforts before young teen start using drugs. In addition, effective programs are required to a combined effort from the schools, the community, and most important from our own family.

During our nation’s earliest history, drug addiction was considered a personal matter. The most common substances of abuse were and still are legal and easily available to citizen of all ages. Medical doctors privately treated cases of addiction. This situation changed after the civil war. Numbers of wounded veterans returned home hooked on the opiates they have received freely. Countless white, middle aged housewives became addicted to various narcotics, too. The invention of the hypodermis needle gave further impetus to drug use. “By the start of the twentieth century, many were raising moral objections to the use of drugs” (Raczek).

Teen drug abuse is a common and serious unsolved problem. A drug of abuse is any substance, taken through routes of administration, that alters the mood, the level of perception, or brain functioning. Such drugs include substance range from prescribed medications to alcohol to solvents. Almost all these substances are capable of producing changes in mood and altered stages of learning. ”The diagnostic criteria for abuse require evidence of repeated occurrences within a twelve month period of any social, legal, or interpersonal problems related to the substances” (Masline). Drug abuse can range from smoking marijuana to taking ecstasy to huffing solvents. All of these drugs loss of brain cells. Americans have consistently identified drug use as being among to top problems confronting the nation. Yet many do not recognize the degree to which own children, own schools, and communities are at risk. Over many years, millions of dollars have been poured into prevention and treatment services, and treatment services, and even though the problem has not been solved yet, parents have some control over teenage drug abuse in their own home.

Adolescence is a pressure filled time for teens and for many, experimentation with drugs is thought to be part of growing up. When teenagers begin to experiment with drugs at an early age they are at a higher risk for teenage drug abuse and problems associates with drugs and alcohol later in their lives. Results from the 2006 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse show that the earlier in life people initiate drug use, the more likely they are to develop a drug problem. For example, in 2006, 9.8 percent of youths aged 12 to 17 were current illicit drug users: 6.7 percent

used marijuana, 3.3 percent engaged in no medical use of prescription-type drugs, 1.3 percent used inhalants, 0.7 percent used hallucinogens, and 0.4 percent used cocaine. Early adolescent tobacco use is an indication of later drug use and abuse. Teenagers experiment with number of different illegal substances usually starting with tobacco, alcohol and marijuana. Club drugs, drugs often found at “rave” parties and dance clubs, have also grown in popularity over the years, making ecstasy and methamphetamine commonly used among teenagers. Almost all the illegal drugs are dangers; there is no such thing as safe or responsible use of illegal drugs. The National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (2006) showed that among pregnant women aged 15 to 44 years, 4.0 percent reported using illicit drugs in the past month based on combined 2005 and 2006 NSDUH data. This rate was significantly lower than the rate among women aged 15 to 44 who were not pregnant (10.0 percent). The 2003-2004 combined rate of current illicit drug use among pregnant women (4.6 percent) was not significantly different from the 2005-2006 combined rates. The drug problem affects almost all types of students, women, men, etc. Drugs are a serious problem not only among high school students but also among middle and elementary school students as well. Since 1991, the Monitoring the Future Survey has collected data from 8th, 10th, and 12th grade students across the United States. This year’s survey reveals that a fifth (21 percent) of today’s 8th graders, over a third (36 percent) of 10th graders, and about half (48 percent) of all 12th graders have ever taken any illicit drug during their lifetime (NIDA).

Because teenagers are still young and more often than not fully dependent on their parents for support, they do not see the consequences of the actions they are taking in concern to drugs. Some teenagers are able to experiment with drugs and never experience the pain and agony of teenage drug abuse either because they had a bad incident on drugs or because they never got addicted. Children, who are depressed, have low self-esteem or feel like outsiders are also prone to drug use and teenage drug abuse. Drug use or abuse crosses the line drug addiction when teenagers feel they have to have the drug, and they increase the amount of the drug they take. Various factors, such as their personality, their genetic makeup and peer pressure, affect their like hood of becoming addicted to a drug. In addition, some drugs such as heroin and cocaine more quickly produce a physical addiction than other drugs do for many people. Social influences play a key in making drug use attractive to teenagers. The first temptations to use drugs come in social situations in the form of pressure to “act grown up” by smoking cigarettes or using alcohol or marijuana. Teenagers who turn to more potent drugs usually do so after first using cigarettes and alcohol, and then marijuana. Initial attempts may not produce a “high”; however, teenagers who continue to use drugs learn that drugs can change their thoughts and feelings. The greater a teen’s involvements with marijuana, the more likely it is the teen will begin to use other drugs in conjunction with marijuana. According to Goldstein, drug use frequently progresses in stages from occasional use, to regular use, to multiple drug use, and ultimately to total dependency. With each successive stage, drug use intensifies, becomes more varied, and results in increasingly debilitating effects. But this progression is inevitable. Drug use can be stopped at any stage. However, the more deeply involved teenagers are with drugs, the more difficult it is for them to stop. Hurley declares that the basic reason people take drugs is to vary the conscious experience. Of course there are many other ways to alter consciousness, such as listening to music, dancing, exercising, and meditating. The list is probably endless,