The And Alcohol Safety Course

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.

Teenage drug abuse is an issue that can result from a wide variety of social influences, stressful events, and mental disorders. Drug abuse among adolescents is a troubling issue because it decreases focus, increases the chance of consistency in behavior during adulthood, increases the chances of developing emotional issues, permanently damages the brain, and damages tissues in every system that can lead to death. Previous scientific research has identified that social factors, including the media and peers, play an important role in psychological development and impact the adolescent's decision to start experimenting with substances (Botvin 888). Appropriate solutions for the teenage drug abuse issue already exist, but the only remaining

Drug abuse in children and adolescents has been a problem since the past when drugs were used for aliments and now because of the ever present drug problem in our country. There is no community or family that is not affected by the use of drugs in their children. Drug abuse in children and teenagers may pose a greater problem for our country since they have not completely developed their brains to an adult level, with this in thought it seems clear why adolescents can become addicted drugs.

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

Read Parts 1 through 4 of Dirty: A Search for Answers Inside America’s Teenage Drug Epidemic. These sections follow three children - Mike, Tristan, and Zalika - who have descended into drug and alcohol abuse, and adults’ attempts to intervene and help them turn their lives around.

The existence of a myriad of social problems among teenagers that both parents and states have to deal with is a factor whose weight ought not to be treated lightly. The increasing level of drug use among the adolescents constitutes one of the ever increasing situations in the society and may, as a matter of fact, be a representation other underlying issues. The level of the situation in the contemporary world, though not discussed as much as it ought to be, has reached alarming levels. There seems to be an increasing predisposition among the use to take the drugs as it's reflected in the escalating trends of drug abuse among this generation of individuals (spooner, 1999). The ever deteriorating levels of this situation coupled with the widespread permissiveness in the society and the absence of attention from appropriate caregivers at different institutions only means that the need to address the problem is paramount. Different avenues of solutions can be applied in reducing the level of the problem and averting the massive negative consequences that come with the phenomena. Dealing with this issue is not a matter of instance as the different parameters of the problems, its causes and possible workable solutions have to be discovered. As such, research on these dynamics is a mandatory undertaking.

To gain a well rounded analysis, we look to other studies which emphasise the enduring strength of barriers – peer pressure, parental attachment, personal value systems – that keep most young people from associating with a culture in which familiarity with drugs is ‘normal '. The idea behind this argument is that drug use is in fact far from the norm, young drug users hold the same values as that of wider society and they only take drugs because they are trying to neutralise the guilt that has resulted from engaging in a behaviour they know is ultimately wrong. With this argument in mind, one could argue that it is up to the criminal justice system to help regulate illegal drug use because young people are aware that what they are doing is wrong and carry on doing so because they already feel guilty about breaking societal values. As plausible as this argument may seem, such an interpretation is simplistic in that it makes assumptions that those who take drugs perceive it to be wrong, instead they may just feel guilt because of the existing societal sanctions that are in place and not because they are breaking so called 'societal values '. Having said this, there are also other studies which support the findings of the NWELS. South argues that "the ‘normalisation of drug use’ reflects society’s undeniable awareness of drugs issues; for example, drugs education and prevention efforts indicate that these substances are no longer perceived as exceptional and remote but as

Addiction is formed by an initial choice fueled by external beguiling factors. From the time we are born, we know absolutely nothing, our minds are a blank slate. In fact, according to Jean Piaget’s cognitive stages of development, the mind does not begin to think abstractly from concrete ideas or reason until the final stage (formal operational), which lasts all the from age twelve and on. Because of this, we can deduce that at any age in our development, we are susceptible to external factors influencing our behavior. With that being said, a person’s decision to participate in the use of any substance is influenced by much more than their knowledge that it is “wrong”. Peer pressure, stress, curiosity or even medical practices can ignite the choice to abuse substances. The majority of addictions that begin in the pre-teen and teenage years stem from their exposure to drugs and alcohol in the media, many even claim that

Your brain has fully developed and you are emerging as a teen into a world of pressures. There are many addictions and disorders that begin at this stage in life. There are addictions to cocaine, pot, and alcohol. The main disorder that is discussed in the video is schizophrenia. Looking back to the pressure of teens to use psychoactive drugs such as cocaine , amphetamines , and even caffeine , it is seen that they are easily abused and have negative effects on the brain. The film taught us about a group of teens that had experimented with different substances and have become addicted to them. As many of the teens explained their addiction had taken over their lives, and they didn't want to do it anymore but because they had been doing it so long they were unable to function without it. I personally can't relate to this strong of an addiction, I have gone through phases in life where I really want something but never to the point of not being able to function. There are people that I personally know that are caffeine addicts where their days don't start until they have had there cup or two of coffee from Starbucks. What many people may not realize is that when you start taking a drug you get an immediate high, but after a

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)

Adolescences and young adults begin using drugs including prescription drugs, illegal drugs, alcohol, and tobacco. It’s hard to understand the reasons why adolescences and adults abuse drugs. New experiences are sought out by adults and adolescences and they will give and administrator many reasons for doing so to have that experience of new highs. It is so shocking to know that almost 3/4 of the seniors in high school have tried drugs, and have tried alcohol as well. Then almost 1/2 have tried illegal drugs and have smoked cigarettes, and about 1/3 have tried prescription drugs and it was not for medical reasons either. It is a risk factor that adolescences try drugs thinking

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.