The Effects Of Drugs

This has led many teenagers to switch over to marijuana and by legalizing it the switch to a safer drug would continue and it would also make it cheaper than other illicit drugs. This correlation can be seen with the statistics provided by the NIDA 2011 study. 25% of teens surveyed said they tried marijuana at least once last year and 6.6% of 12th graders admitted to smoking weed daily. Marijuana use has been the highest since 1981, but at the same time cigarette and alcohol usage have reached historic lows. 11.7% of U.S. teens reported having smoked a cigarette in the last 30 days, compared to 12.8 percent in 2010. Also alcohol usage has reduced, the proportion of 8th graders reporting any use of alcohol in the prior 30 days has fallen by about half (from 25% to 13%), among 10th graders by more than one third (from 43% to 27&, and among 12th graders by about one fourth (from 54% to 40%).

According to a 2012 Monitoring the Future study, marijuana is the illicit drug most likely to be used by teens (Maine Integrated Youth Health Survey). Marijuana comes from the plant Cannabis Sativa and appears as a green/brown mix of flowers, stems, and leaves (Teens Health 1). Marijuana is also known as pot, weed, MJ, Mary Jane, reefer, dope, ganja, herb, and grass. Marijuana is most often smoked in cigarettes, hollowed-out cigars, pipes, or water pipes, but is sometimes mixed into food or tea (1). Why are there concerns about teen use of marijuana? During adolescence, many developmental changes are occurring and poor choices could affect a teen’s future

Marijuana is a popular and universal drug. It is easily accessible to most people and is the number one illicit drug used in North America. Although the availability and knowledge of this drug is fairly equal for all people in North America, marijuana tends to be more prevalent in teenagers and young adults. Maisto, Galizio, and Conners (2004) reported that "use of marijuana [in young people] was 8.0% among those aged 12-17; 16% among those aged 18-25," as compared to "6.8% among those aged 26-34; and 2.4% among those 35 and older." People of all ages, races, and religions use marijuana and have their own reasons to use it. Young people first try marijuana because of some common reasons. Some teenagers feel pressured by their peers to

Marijuana use amongst teenagers increased drastically from the 70’s to the late 90’s according to a continuous study done by Keyes et al. (2011). This study was conducted on a total

Marijuana use among high school seniors in the United States has been on the rise causing greater concerns for addiction and health concerns among teenagers. According to the CDC, in 2010, marijuana use among high school seniors rose to 21.4%, with 25.2% being male users and 16.9% being female (Health, United States, 2011, 2011). This shows a steady increase every year starting in 2007 where 18.8% of high school seniors were using marijuana, with 22.3% were male and 15.0% were female. Ages as young as 12 years old also showed the same statistical trends, even in Middle Schools.

According to the United Nations , 158.8 million people around the world use Marijuana which is 3.8 of the earth's population (Marijuana Statistics ). Marijuana's impact on users has changed over the years. Back in the 1960s, the potency of marijuana was nowhere near what it is today. Along with that, if users are caught, it affects those convicted more negatively. Additionally, marijuana today is being chemically altered leading to dangerous side effects for users. Therefore, Drugs are worse for teenagers today than in the 1960s due to the prescription pill epidemic,Ease of using drugs in school, and the effects drugs can have on a user's future today.

Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area reports that “marijuana use among the ages 12 to 17 years increased 6.6 percent.” Although recreational marijuana is only allowed to be purchased by people twenty-one and older, teenagers are still managing to getting ahold of it. A. Eden Evans, a director at the Center for Addiction Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital(MGH) has done a large amount of research on the effect of marijuana on adolescents. She found that some immediate physical risks of marijuana are “impaired coordination, slowed reaction time, slow processing on particularly unexpected or complex events”(Legalizing Marijuana: The Public Health Pros and Cons 14:44). Although they are unsure exactly how long these side effects last, they do have a negative effect on young children trying to learn and can reduce their quality of learning experience. Evans mentions a study done at MGH on the impact of marijuana to the body functions, that when testing kids early “[they] didn't find function difficulties [but] five years later those who had starting using marijuana had worsened executive function”(17:59). Drug Rehab, a website that offers ways to overcoming addictions, explains in further detail some of the specific risks and statistics to help show marijuana's high health risk. One of the risks they cite on the website is marijuana's addictive nature, where they state that “10% of users will develop dependence over time.” Addiction to marijuana can lead to many other drug addictions. On the same website they take a look into another medical study on males, that reports “that teenage boys who abused alcohol, cigarettes, and marijuana were 2 to 3 times more likely to abuse prescription drugs during young adulthood” (Drugrehab.us).

In 2011, 36.4% of high school seniors in the United States reported using marijuana within the past year, 22.6% within the past month and 6.6% on a daily basis. By comparison, daily use of tobacco was reported to be 10.3% of 12th graders (Tashkin, 2013, p.

Ecstasy is both a hallucinogenic, causing hallucination, and a stimulant drug. Ecstasy is the name given to methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA). It was first synthesized in 1912 by Merck chemist Anton Köllisch. Ecstasy appears to disturb the body 's ability to regulate its temperature and this can lead to serious problems with overheating of the body. Ecstasy can be swallowed as a pill or tablet or snorted like a powder. Users of ecstasy can experience a rush of good feelings, a high, and makes someone 's feelings much more intense, whether they 're good or bad feelings. Ecstasy’s effects usually last up to 6 hours.

The consequences of alcohol include short-term and long-term effects. The short-terms effects include memory loss, recklessness, impaired judgement, drowsiness, and nausea. The long-term effects include decrease in brain size, liver disease, cancer, malnutrition, cardiovascular disease, alcohol poising, and death (American Addiction Centers, 2018).

Illicit drug use among young adults has remained steady for the past few years. Marijuana is abused more than any other illicit drug. Nineteen percent of people between the ages of 18 and 25 have used marijuana within the past month.

Drugs users uses it all day every day, anytime they just to fell good and lose stress. As also the rate of current, past 30 days use of drugs by twelve years old and older in 1979 13.2 are intense drugs users. In 2008 we stood at a figure of 6.1 percent of twelve years old and older smoking. Marijuana is the most commonly most abused around the U.S and the world of drug users. The most difficult thing about marijuana addiction in some people, even though they are addicted can do find within many years before it started to be difficult and eventually wear off being high and want to try it even more. Also when they start it is hard for them to stop unless they go see a

For the epidemiology of this patient we focused on the effects and causes that illicit drugs can have on patients and diseases, which in this case is some sort of myocardial infarction or compromise. Epidemiology is defined by the CDC as “a method used to find the causes of health outcomes and diseases in populations;” and also as “the study (scientific, systematic, data-driven) of the distribution (frequency, pattern) and determinants (causes, risk factors) of health-related states and events (not just diseases) in specified populations (neighborhood, school, city, state, country, global)” (Dicker, 2006). The cause of this patient’s cardiac issues most likely may be directly related to his drug use. Most illegal drugs can have adverse reactions on the cardiovascular system. One drug of significant interest and importance is that of cocaine, which is considered “the perfect heart attack drug” by the American Heart Association (AHA, 2015). A study done by the AHA showed that young and healthy individuals that use cocaine and other illicit drugs recreationally are still at great risk of heart attack from higher blood pressure, thickened heart muscle, increased heart rate, and stiffer arteries (AHA, 2015). Many people also combine other drugs with cocaine such as amphetamines increasing the effects of the drugs (National Institute of Drug Abuse, 2016). Cocaine is a very prevalent drug in American society and is not limited to one age group or demographic. It is

Due to its necessity in our everyday lives, the ever-growing field of pharmacology provides a wide range of opportunities that allow those following this path to lead very successful careers as pharmacologists. Pharmacologists are scientists who perform experiments in regards to pharmaceutical drugs in order to analyze the effects that certain drugs have on the health of humans. Pharmacologists study the effects of these drugs and work in the development of new or more effective drugs to aid in the treatment and prevention of diseases in humans ("Education & Experiences," n.d. para. 2). Not only do they study the effects that certain drugs have on a individual 's health, pharmacologists also study the drug 's effectiveness in treating and preventing disease as well. Pharmacologists aim to develop drugs that can be used to treat or prevent illness in humans ("Education & Experience," n.d. para. 4).

Drugs are substances that can be good and bad for the human body. It can sometimes have a negative effect inside the body, such as organs and the brain, yet still feel good to the outer self; so good that some might even get addicted to it so much that they cannot live without it. According to medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com, a drug is a chemical substance that has impact on the mind and the body. It can be used in various ways such as treatment, diagnosis, prevention of diseases and other conditions that are abnormal or may cause an illness. Some of these drugs are marijuana, heroin, morphine and prescribed drugs.