ADOLESCENTS WITH DRUG ABUSE

Adolescents With Drug Abuse

Adolescents With Drug Abuse

Introduction

Adolescents are children of age ranging from 12 years to 17 years. They are also called teenagers, youth etc. these adolescents are inclining towards the use of drugs. Millions of adolescents are now at the risk of major health problems due to the use of substance such different types of drugs and alcohol. The increased substance abuse have given rise to different problems such as traffic accidents, decline in academic performance, risky sexual practices, juvenile crime, criminal behavior, developmental problems. These problems are described one by one in details.

Traffic Accidents

It is found that approximately 45 percent of all deaths, which are resulted from traffic accidents, are due to use of alcohol. It was also found that approximately 2.5 million adolescents drive when they are drunk. (Center for Substance Abuse Treatment, 2009)

Decline In Academic Performance

When adolescents are involved in substance abuse, they start showing a decline in their academic performance. They start getting poor grades, they do not want to go to their schools and after that they are dropped out of the school. Their academic performances are also badly affected due to their behavioral and cognitive problems. (Crowe, 2008)

Risky Sexual Practices

When adolescents start using drugs then they are more likely to incline towards sex. They are found to initiate sex earlier than those adolescents that do not use drugs. They are likely to have many sex partners that is an alarming condition because having many sexual partners may lead them towards several health hazards such as HIV/AIDS, hepatitis C and many other diseases that can be transmitted sexually. (National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, 2009)

Juvenile Crime

Adolescents who use marijuana are involved in many juvenile crimes than those adolescents who do not use marijuana. Such crimes are their related percentages are as follows:

Selling of marijuana- 24 % vs. less than 1 %

Carrying a handgun- 21 % vs. 7 %

Involvement in a gang- 14 % vs. 2 % (Synder & Sickmund, 2009)

Criminal Behavior

Adolescents that are found to use marijuana weekly are involved in following activities and their activities are compared with those adolescents that do not use marijuana.

They run away from home six times more than the non-users of marijuana.

They are involved in stealing things not only from their homes but also from other places five times more than the non-users of marijuana.

They are found to physically attack people four times than the non-users of marijuana.

Developmental Problems

When adolescents are involved in substance abuse, then they face a lot of developmental problems. Such problems badly affect the social and psychological development of adolescents. These problems include decline in intellectual and emotional growth, weak self-identity, and destruction of their careers, weak personal relationships. (Center for Substance Abuse Treatment, 2009)

Illegal Drug Use By Adolescents

It is found that 1.1 million children of age ranging from 12 to 17 years are dependent on the illegal drugs; among them 915,000 are alcohol dependent. The children whose age is from 16 to 17 years are using ...