For numerous generations now, drugs have been a dominant dilemma in our society. The fact that not only drug issues increased rapidly but drug related problems are on the rise. Using drugs increases the risk of injury. Car crashes, falls, burns, drowning, and suicide are all linked to drug use These substances affect the body in many ways, including the exchange of information within the brain, is slowed. The usage of drugs ruins the users looks, makes them depressed, and contributes to slipping grades. Although it is illegal for someone to purchase, possess, or consume alcohol under the age of 19, many teenagers do. In addition to breaking the law, these teenagers put themselves into vulnerable situations, that can change their lives …show more content…
Most people that use these illegal substances go on to doing more serious crimes such as rape, murder, and suicide. Drugs and alcohol have damaging effects on the mind, body, and personality, it is advisable to stay away from them. Most of teens are getting help from family members to get drugs, which is a huge part of the problem. As stated in the article Drugs Even Affect Kids, 65% of drug addicts get access to the drink via there closes family and friends. This is causing teens to think that it is okay to do drugs, and this is also showing lack of parental support. If teens see that other people are doing something, or people they look up to such as parents doing something then they are going to think it is okay. Being in high school, you are opened up to some of the teens and parents that are doing this for their children, so you see it going on.
A major cause of doing drugs is because of all the stress teens are dealing with. They are doing drugs in this case so they can create a way to escape from their problems. Red Ribbon week explains, quite a few have similar feelings that that the go through, for instance, depression or stress that can be caused by problems at school or with family friends. This has a tremendous impact on their decisions with drugs and alcohol.” Nowadays teens are exposed to a lot more school work and job related things that they feel they have no time to get any of it done, so it builds up a large amount of
Adolescence is a time where adolescents grow and mature at a rapid rate. It is also a time where adolescents are more vulnerable to taking risks, such as using and becoming addicted to illegal substances, due to raging hormones. Whether or not an adolescent chooses to engage in drug use and abuse depends on their home environment and those they choose to associate themselves with. Adolescents are confronted with an enormous amount of pressure to participate in risky behaviors by their peers. According to Broderick and Blewitt (2015), “risky behaviors are behaviors that constitute a departure from socially accepted norms or behaviors that pose a threat to the well-being of individuals or groups” (p. 389). One such risky behavior is drug use and addiction. Some adolescents use cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, and prescription drugs in order to get “high”. Adolescents who engage in drug use are likely to become addicted, and thus, their addiction will negatively affect their brain development.
These numbers reveal that teenagers face an apparent exposure to drugs, and have little trouble getting a hold of some if desired. This article concludes that drug use and its consequences are not stressed enough in the current high school curriculum. The statistics prove that more needs to be done to identify and educate students at risk for drug use.
A drug is a substance that alters the mind, body or both. Drug use is an increasing problem among teenagers in colleges today. Most drug use begins in the preteen and teenage years, the years most crucial in the maturation process (Shiromoto 5). During these years adolescents are faced with difficult tasks of discovering their self identity, clarifying their sexual roles, assenting independence, learning to cope with authority and searching for goals that would give their lives meaning. Drugs are readily available, adolescents are curious and venerable, and there is peer pressure to experiment, and there is a temptation to escape from conflicts. The use of drugs by teenagers is the result of a combination of factors such as peer
The most immense reason teens start utilizing these drugs is because their friends were pressured through peer pressure. No one desires to be left out, and teens (and some adults, too) find themselves trying things they normally wouldn’t try, just to fit in with the crowd. In these cases, you either look for better friends that won’t pressure you to do irrational things, or find a reasonable way to say no. Teens should plan an exit strategy or plan ahead of time, to resist from giving into temptation. These teens become victims to peer pressure due to the fear of being insulted by making them feel deprived for not doing something, that they eventually do it. Pressuring them by telling them why they should do it and the fear of rejection by
Drug use is an increasing problem among teenagers in today's high schools. Most drug use begins in the teenage years, these years are the most crucial in the maturing process. During these years adolescents are faced with the difficult tasks of discovering their self identity, clarifying their sexual roles, assenting independence, learning to cope with authority figures and searching for goals that would give their lives meaning. Drugs are readily available, adolescents are curious and venerable, and there is peer pressure to experiment, and there is a temptation to escape from conflicts. The use of drugs by teenagers is the result of a combination of factors such as peer pressure, curiosity, and
Family History of Substance Abuse, Having a Mental Health Disorder, Peer Pressure, Lack of Family Involvement and Taking Highly Addictive Drugs (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2016). You might think that some of these risk factors are foolish, when most of them can be prone to a substance abuse in an adolescent's life. Having a Mental Health issue is one of the most common factors to substance abuse, being depressed, having anxiety or being stressed can cause teens to feel hopeless and that is when they turn to drugs and alcohol to “support them”; Lack of Family Involvement also puts teens at a higher risk of abusing substances, when a teen feels alone when they are at home, they find ways to replace a family’s love with other things, substances. Lastly, I believe that Peer Pressure causes thousands of teens to do things against their beliefs. We can all agree that being a teenager is an abnormal time, we are finding out who we are and we want to fit in with “that group”, minors will do anything, including drugs to be accepted in society. The upsetting part is, us teens do not understand that we are who we are, we need to find friends who make us a better person, like us for our true selves; not forcing you into bad ideas that could lead you down the wrong road in your
However, just because high schoolers mimic other substances users around them, does not mean that they do not have a reason to why they do it. According to Family Life: Help for Toady. Hope for Tomorrow, it states that there are four primary reasons that teenagers end up substance users then abusers: rebellion/cry for help, stress/seeking escape, curiosity/mind expansion, and peer pressure/mentor craving. I have witnessed this numerous time. A close friend of mine use mind altering drugs to reduce stress and expand his mind. However, he has become dependent on it that he needs to do it at least 3 times
One reason drug usage is teens is that they follow in their parents footsteps. How a child sees their parents act while growing up plays a big part
It has been discovered that most people who struggle with drug addiction began experimenting with drugs in their teens. Teenage drug abuse is one of the largest problems in society today and the problem grows and larger every year. Drugs are a pervasive force in our culture today. To expect kids not to be influenced by the culture of their time is as unrealistic as believing in the tooth fairy (Bauman 140). Teens may feel pressured by their friends to try drugs, they may have easy access to drugs, they may use drugs to rebel against their family or society, or they may take an illegal drug because they are curious about it or the pleasure that it gives them.
3). It is important to be mindful that teens become more vulnerable based on being a product of their environment, family history, having experience any violence or trauma or having lack of structure (Teen Drug Abuse, 2015, p. 6). Statistics in 2013 showed that “the proportions of students indicating any use of an illicit drug in the prior 12 months are 15 percent, 32 percent, and 40 percent in grades 8, 10 and 12, which is higher than a year ago by 1.5, 1.6 and 0.6 percentage points for the same grades. For the three grades combined, the rate is up by 1.3 percentage points which is a statistically significant increase.” In general, “half of America's high school seniors have tried an illicit drug by the time they graduate and four in 10 have used it in just the past year. (Teen Drug Abuse, 2015, p. 2). It is important to target this population because not only are they the future of society, but a lot of problems can be resolved such as mental illness, emotional problems, communication
In many cases teens that you may know do end up going to jail because they have become addicted to the drugs they have been using and they will do anything to buy what they need. At that point your fellow peers or even friends will begin dealing drugs thinking that it is the quickest means of receiving money. With the money they receive, it goes towards the drugs they want to purchase.
Drugs and alcohol are very dangerous to your body. They cause you to do things you wouldn’t otherwise do in your normal life. Teens are the most likely to start off a hard life by using drugs and alcohol. Many drink and use drugs to excession, several drink and do drugs on a regular basis, some drink and do drugs on occasion, but a number of people may not like drugs and alcohol and may never use them.
War on drugs has been an issue in the United States for several years now. Being a college student at East Carolina University, I have met several people in the community and have witnessed a lot. As I continued to grow as an adult at East Carolina, I began to fully understand how serious of a problem drugs were. People see doing drugs as a way to fit in with others, using it for social purposes. After having friends go to the hospital or sadly, die from an overdose on drugs, I have decided to take action myself. It seems that the majority of the people today do not want to fully understand the consequences that come from drugs. Yes, they feel sympathy for those who have passed away from overdose or mixing drugs with other drugs but do not seem to change their ways any. We first as a community need to understand and accept the fact that drugs are a serious issue and action needs to take place.
According to research done by the National Institute on Drug Abuse in April of 2017, drug-related deaths have more than doubled since 2000. In 2004, the University of Michigan and the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, showed that 70.6 percent of high school seniors had used alcohol in the past year. Substance abuse is when a person can not control their intake of drugs and/or alcohol. This disease causes major health issues and distorts the thinking a person’s mental health. This crisis is important because it ruins the lives of millions of addicts, and affects all types of race, gender, sexuality, and age group. Because this is manipulative illness heavy influences social environments, addiction affects the lives of many impressionable adolescents.
Kids today are subject to be exposed to illicit drugs any day of the week. Whether they choose to experiment with these drugs or not, depends on the power they have to overcome peer pressure or other obstacles they face. Illicit drugs do not pick the people they affect, the people choose the drugs to affect themselves and the lives of others, and this is true for children and adults. Adult drugs users often give birth to children who are exposed to drugs at birth. Often times when a child is exposed to drug at an earlier age they will experiment with illicit drugs. Even though some children are exposed to drugs at an earlier age, some grow up to become non drug users do to the fact they choose to go down the right path to make good with their lives.