Teenage Drug Use Research Paper

The content of this paper is an interview with Laura Crain from the McHenry County Substance Abuse Coalition. In the paper I touch on the history of the Coalition and how its evolved throughout the years. The coalition has a lot of involvement with the community in various counties. The work on a larger scheme rather than on a one to one basis. This interview covered the mission and goals set for the Coalition. Laura discussed with me the influences internal as well as external that affect the Coalition. Another thing we discussed was the struggles that come along with running an organization like this. I also touched on my personal experience and my thoughts regarding my internship.

Three decades from now, T.L.O., a student at a New Jersey High School was caught smoking in a school restroom, and was brought to the assistant principal’s office. The 14-years-old teenager denied smoking, so the assistant principal persisted in searching her purse and found cigarettes, and rolling paper which is associated with marijuana (T.L.O. vs. New Jersey). Nothing has changed since then. If you look a little closer, you can see teenagers lying around doing drugs here and there. They are no longer determined to succeed in life; instead all they can think about is where the next supply of cocaine will come from. What has our future come to? Research done by scientists and other professionals provide evidence that substance abuse by teenagers is an ever-growing problem due to teen’s poor judgement, it’s irreparable damage, and inability to compete with drug addiction.

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

Drug use affects every sector of society, straining our economy, our healthcare and criminal justice systems, and endangering the futures of young people. This needs assessment is performed to identify what additional services might be needed to

My hometown is Morgantown in Butler County Kentucky. It is the picture perfect small town that you would see in a movie. However, what the movies don’t show is the underlying community health problems that every small town or community has. After reflecting back on my hometown I have come to the conclusion that Morgantown gets bad a reputation due to individuals who make poor or unhealthy life decisions. Morgantown is suffering from drug and alcohol abuse not only adults, but minors as well. According to Mackenzie and Pinger (2015), “…control of behavioral risk factors alone-such as lack of

I live in the small community of Pleasant Valley, New York. Pleasant Valley is in central Dutchess County and is a suburban-rural community north of New York City. Pleasant Valley is a quiet 3 stoplight town consisting of residential areas as well as farms. The town is quaint and its name reflects it. However, in recent years, drug use by adolescents is on the rise. Pleasant Valley has had a member of the community die from heroin overdose as well as multiple arrests for possession and distribution of illegal drugs. These drugs consist of heroin, cocaine, prescription drugs and marijuana. Knowing these drugs are available in this small community puts its residence at risk. The U.S. Census Bureau lists persons under 18 years of age 23.2% of Pleasant Valley’s population. This is almost one-fourth of the community. The purpose of this paper is to identify and assess this vulnerable population. According to Nies and McEwen (2015), “the primary concern of community health nurses is to improve the health of the community” (pg. 92). Education is the first step in raising awareness about the

In today’s society there is an enormous amount of research being conducted throughout the world. A great many of those studies are occurring on Universities and campuses, in this paper, analysis of one such study will be reviewed. The article is an evaluation of a Juvenile Drug Court Program in Lexington, Kentucky. The data that is coming from the Bureau of Justice suggests that juvenile courts process a higher volume of cases today than at any time in the past (Hayden, 2012) These statistics represent the trend in persistently high rates in use of illegal substances among adolescents in the United States and subsequent juvenile court involvement.

The district I decided to analyze was Marysville Joint Unified School District. I have had the pleasure to teach in this district for almost a year now. As a physical education teacher, it is important to understand the health habits of my students. If students are not taking care of their bodies the chances of them living a long time diminishes. After analyzing the survey, I noticed that in this district there are major signs of drug and alcohol use. Over their lifetime 43% of 11th graders have used alcohol and 34 % have used marijuana. 29% of the 11th graders have drunk alcohol 4 or more times and 23% have used marijuana 4 or more times. This made me why these percentages are so high at such an early age. I wanted to see parent involvement

Among adolescents aged 12 to 17 years, 9.8 % are estimated to be current users of illicit drugs, with 4.9 % using drugs other than marijuana. Nearly three quarters of students have started to drink alcohol and nearly half (47%) have tried using an illicit drug (not including alcohol or tobacco) by the senior year of high school.” (Hassan, Harris, Sherritt, Van Hook, & Brooks, 2009)

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

The Prevention of Marijuana Consumption through Education and Social Support group is designed to serve high school adolescents. The group is a psychoeducational group that offers information on marijuana, while also allowing space for the participants to process their emotional and psychological reactions and experiences to the topic (Hepworth, Rooney, Rooney, & Strom-Gottfried, 2016a). The group was intentionally designed as a psychoeducational group so that the leaders can offer educational materials and coping skills while also leaving space to process the students thoughts and emotions on the subject as well (Hepworth et al., 2016b). The freedom to openly discuss the information taught, instead of simply digesting the information and leaving,

Even though both sides of the argument have opposing viewpoints, they share some common interests. Both sides agree that the number of students that use illicit drugs is increasing throughout the nation and needs to be address. Both sides want the number of high school students using drugs to decrease. They also want what is best for high school students and their health. Both sides have different approaches on how to solve the increasing drug problem in high school; however, they both feel the need to address the issue at hand. They both want to decrease the amount of illicit drugs used by high school students.

As daunting as the reality of drug use is, we can’t get around the truth that drug abuse is extremely prevalent on our college campus and other campuses across the country. In the past few years, daily marijuana use grew to a whopping 11.8% of college youth in 2015. This striking statistic doesn’t include any use of non-medical prescription drugs, cocaine, synthetic drugs, or hookah either. Even high schoolers in recent years have reported in various surveys that they have easier access to obtaining marijuana and painkillers like Vicodin than just tobacco or alcohol. One of the big factors

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.

Since 2000, the drug use rate in America has risen to the highest it’s ever been. In a survey done in 2009, 8.7 percent of people age 12 and up said that they used illegal substances within a month of taking the survey, a 9 percent increase since 2008 (Abuse, National Institute on Drug, 2010). This statistic alone is very concerning due to