Teen Prescription Drug Abuse Among Teens

Throughout schools in the United States, there is a growing issue in our elementary through highschool aged students. Drugs and alcohol have begun to overtake childrens lives as young as twelve years old. There are many types of drugs involved from prescription drugs, which is the number one drug, to alcohol, marijuana, meth, cocaine, heroine, or inhalents.

Years ago, the common image of an adolescent drug abuser was a teen trying to escape from reality on illegal substances like cocaine, heroin, or marijuana. Today, there is a great discrepancy between that perception and the reality of who is likely to abuse drugs. A teenage drug abuser might not have to look any further than his or her parent’s medicine chest to ‘score.’ Prescription drug abuse by teens is on the rise. Also, teens are looking to prescription drugs to fulfill different needs other than to feel good or escape the pressures of adulthood. Teens may be just as likely to resort to drugs with ‘speedy’ side effects, like Ritalin to help them study longer, as they are to use prescription

Drugs can result in teens not doing well in school, which can lead to lower academic opportunities and career options.

Many teenagers between the ages of 12-18 are exposed or already on their way to addiction to substances that are not good for our mental or physical health. Many teens experiment with drugs but aren’t addicted. According to addictioncenters.com “teen drug abuse can have long term cognitive and behavioural effects since the teenage brain is still developing.” A study also shows that half of all new drug users are under 18. This is because our brains are still seeking the “thrill” and temptation of substances. Other common reasons are curiosity, peer pressure, stress, emotional struggles and wanting a escape. Thankfully drug use among teens, despite popular opinion are significantly decreasing. The teenage brain is very immature. By doing drugs as a teen you are at a greater risk for being an addicted adult.

Prescription drug abuse is a problem that is not just focused on adults. There has been a substantial rise in prescription drug abuse among teenagers. Teens are abusing prescription drugs for a number of reasons, including to get high, pain treatment, and/or because they think that it will assist them with school work (Coalition against Drug Abuse, 2014). However boys and girls tend to abuse some types of prescription drugs for different reasons. For example, boys are more likely to abuse prescription stimulants to get high, where girls would abuse them to stay alert to study or for weight loss.

In the last year over a million teens in America alone between the ages 12-17 met the criteria for substance abuse and addiction. Teens should be made aware of the effects of drugs. There are ways to teach teenagers the negative effects of drugs. Such as, fiction novels.

Prescription drug abuse has become a major epidemic across the globe, shattering and affecting many lives of young teenagers. Many people think that prescription drugs are safer and less addictive than “street drugs.” After all, these are drugs that moms, dads, and even kids brothers and sisters use. The dangers are not easily seen, but the future of our youth will soon be in severe danger if the problem is not addressed,it will continue to get worse if action is not taken soon. Prescription drugs are only supposed to be consumed by patients who have been examined and have a medical report by a professional, more and more teens are turning to the family’s medicine cabinet to “get high” but what they are

Teens are highly affected by drugs around the world but training has begun to stop it. Along with brain damage and lung damage. Countless teens around the world use drugs for social advantages.The United States represents 5% of the world's population and 75% of prescription drugs taken. 60% of teens who abuse prescription drugs get them free from friends and relatives. Doctors are already trained to find ways to help.If teens smoke too much it can cause them to die or overdose.

Education is the next stepping stone to the ultimate goal of prevention. According to The USA Today, 95% of unintentional poisoning deaths in the United States are drug overdoses and the number nearly doubled from 1999 to 2004 (“A Tragic Reminder” 3). Both parents and children alike do not understand the dangers that prescription drugs may bring ("Parenting of Teens" 1). After the recent death of actor Heath Ledger, his father issued a statement that said, “Heath's accidental death serves as a caution to the hidden dangers of combining prescription medication, even at low dosage” (“A Tragic Reminder” 1). Parents need to examine all areas of the problem and be aware of the lurking dangers. If more of the population understood the true threats that lie within the medicine cabinet, then young people today would have a much brighter outlook upon the future. Their outlook would not be based on the knowledge of how to use modern medicine for the betterment of our country and not its internal destruction. Today there are many myths regarding both legal and illegal drugs. Examples of these myths include the idea that marijuana causes people to become violent and the idea that aspirin is safe (Corder 3). In actuality, many have died due to hemorrhages as a result of aspirin abuse (Corder 3). Myths concerning drugs encircle American society; it is important for parents to maintain communication with their children in regard to

Many people just have the desire to simply relax or relieve tension, some people like to experiment then when they get addicted you need to maintain your addiction to prevent withdrawal. Teens face struggles of being accepted by peers so when they are the only one in the group not doing drugs you soon get singled out or get made fun of, causing them to cave and try it, causing them to possibly abuse the drug later. Then the most simple cause of prescription drug abuse, just to simply get high. A more complicated cause that isn't anyones fault technically, Genetics. Drug abuse is sometimes known as a genetic problem, In which a first-degree relative struggles with addiction you are at higher risk. Not all people agree with this statement but I think it is true but not always. Children who grow up watching this and thinking its normal are more likely to think it's okay so then they follow the same path as their family member. Once one would get addicted they will soon fear the withdraws that come with stopping the drug, to prevent it they will keep doing the drug if not the same amount but

Parents enable drug abuse without realizing it. When adolescents use cocaine, heroin, marijuana, LSD, and other illicit drugs, it captures a parent’s attention. However, a problem more prevalent than the use of these illicit drugs, and hits closer to home is nonmedical use of prescription drugs (NMUPD). NUMPD occurs when a person without a prescription gains access to a prescription drug and uses it simply for the experience, or for the feeling the drug causes. Therefore the drugs in question end up being used for nonmedical purposes in a manner in which it was never intended. Opioids, used to treat pain, are the prescription drugs that youth are most likely to misuse. These are commonly used because they are available in medicine cabinets

Hannah is a fifteen year old girl who was recently sent to a rehabilitation center for the result of abuse of prescription medication. 6.1 million high school students currently use addictive substances, and like Hannah, 1 in 3 of them are addicted (“National Study Reveals,”2011). Although the number of teens using these drugs are decreasing, the numbers are still dangerously high. Due to it’s high risk of addiction, dangerous consequences, and growing availability, substance abuse among teenagers is a serious trend being presented among all United States adolescence.

Prescription drugs are making parents more overwhelmed than ever before about their teenaged child! Why must they worry so much about their teenaged child? “When you can stop you don’t want to, and when you want to stop, you can’t…” (Davies). This quote signifies that adolescents and adults have the option to quit or not try the drug when being introduced, but when they get started on the drug and they are thinking abouting quitting, they cannot because of the addiction they have on the drug. Each day they try to stay away from the drug, but they are have really bad withdrawals. Middle and high schools should inform parents about the strategies for preventing, recognizing, and addressing prescription drug abuse.

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

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.