Juvenile 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 pressure, curiosity, and availability. Drugs addiction among adolescents in turn lead to depression and suicide (Shiromoto 12).

One of the most important reasons of teenage drug usage is peer pressure. Peer pressure makes drugs seem popular, makes you have a fear of being an outcast, and since everyone is doing it, it is the "cool" thing to do…right? Wrong. Peer pressure represents social influences that effect adolescents, it can have a positive, or a negative effect, depending on person's social group and one can follow one path of the other. We are greatly influenced by the people around us. In today's colleges, drugs are very common; peer pressure usually is the reason for their usage (www.nodrugs.com 1). If the people in your social group use drugs, there will be pressure a direct or indirect pressure from them. A person may be offered to try drugs, which is direct pressure. Indirect pressure is when someone sees everyone around him using drugs and he might think that there is noth...

... middle of paper ...

...any non-profitable organizations that help teenagers to cope with drug use. There are help lines, community services that offer information about drugs, and individual counseling is available almost in every education institution.

Bibliography:

Dolan, Edward F. Jr. Drugs In Sports. New York: Library of Congress Catalog in publication Data, 1986.

Dryfoos, Joy G. Safe Passage. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.

Henican, Ellis, and O'Brien, William b. You Can't Do It Alone. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 1993.

http://www.narconon.org/html/soln1/sol4.htm.

Shiromoto, Frank N., and Sooren, Edgar F. Drugs & Drinks: Painful Questions. Monterey, CA: Choice Press, 1988.

"Teen Drug Abuse." CNN. 28 Mar. 1999:6.

The Information Series on Current Topics. Illegal Drugs. Texas: Information Plus, 1997.

www.nodrugs.com.