Teenage drug addicts - Essay Example

? Teen Drug Addicts Introduction: Drugs have been always successful in trapping the majority teenagers living around the worldduring all these decades. But with time, the excessive drug use among teenagers is becoming a serious global issue which has to be addressed as soon as possible because these are the teenagers who are responsible to step forward and do something for their respective countries. With increasing time, more and more teenagers across the world are falling to slave drug abuse leading to some grave health issues (Liddle and Rowe, 2006). According to the research held by the MetLife Education, there has been a sharp increase in teen drug use all over the world, in the use of alcohol, marijuana and ecstasy, especially from the year 2008. A study by National Center of Education Statistics during the year 2009 found out that the main reason of this proliferating numbers of teen drug addicts is that 22% of high school teens are being provided in drugs in their respective schools (Russell, 2008). This teen population, around 45% of this part of teen population cannot see any ‘risk’ due to excessive drug use. That means lack of awareness is the dominant reason that has led to such a grave issue. Teens living in UK are also in the running. They too fall in the same category that is severely attacked by this issue of Drug Abuse. They too are falling in the trap and ruining their lives, UK’s society and the country as a whole. Teen Drug Addiction in UK – Causes, Effects and Current Trends Even after the government’s several attempts of implementing strict policies on its teen population, the numbers of ‘Teenage Drug Addicts in Britain’ are increasing at a high rate. The deaths in Britain due to drug abuse rose from 1952 to2182 deaths in total. Before peeking into the world of Teen Drug addicts in UK, we first need to know who these drugs came into this country and ruined the lives of many people, enjoying their teenage life. In case of Cocaine, UK is considered to be the most affected country due to drug abuse in the entire world. With 2% regular users of cocaine in UK, teens living between these people will surely fall in this trap and try their first drug, and this is what really happened. With a 19million share of the cost of drugs in the GDP of UK, more than 40% of this is paid by the UK teens. These figures clearly demonstrate the scenario of drug addicts who are teenagers and are living in Britain (Plant, et al, 2010). Overview of Teen drug Addiction During the time 2008 to 2009, around 8.1% increase has been observed in the number of teen drug users in UK. In UK, drug abuse is not just an epidemic, but a plaque. United Kingdom has a long history of teen drug abuse in its regards, because it was the first ever country of European Union that was reported to see the emergence of the drug misuse. In United Kingdom, drugs are commonly supplied around the country that’s why teens cannot find difficult in finding them and becoming huge big drug addicts in a short time period. This has led to a creation of social norm about this country as now the teen population have become really open minded when it comes to use drugs openly in social gatherings (Paylor et al, 2012). The current scenario of teen drug addicts in Britain has illustrated that this issue is getting out of hand. In a European Schools Survey Project, with 42% teen boys and 39% teen girls, illegal drugs have been used. Alcohol abuse, alcohol one of those drugs widely used in teenagers in UK, is prevailing commonly in UK, and this situation is getting worse in case of girls. Professor Martin Plant, of the University of West of England said: “One of the big problems is that vast numbers of young people who engage in these behaviors believe that they are completely invulnerable”. Causes of Teen Drug Addiction One of the reasons of a high rate of teenage drug addicts in UK reported by this professor are poor parenting. Parents living in UK are very broad minded and don’t feel responsible when imposing restrictions on their children. They don’t bother to keep a check on their academic performance, their activities and what they do in spare time, what is their company. Many of the UK parents who want to try but are not; they are tired, have given up and got scared after analyzing the current situation of teen drug abuse in UK (Schuckit, 2005). During these years, the rate of teens seeking treatment against this drug abuse has fallen drastically and for some drugs like cannabis, it has remained steady with no such improvements and progress even due to governmental policies to eradicate drug usage over the country. In the year 2008, there has been an increase of 33% from the age 11 to 15 years of age in the number of admissions. Many of renowned personalities like Andrew Lansley have tagged Britain as a broken society due to such grave condition. Effects of Teen Drug Addiction There has been a sharp rise in the number of teenagers becoming severe drug addicts who are living in rural areas as compared to the ones in urban areas. With 15% boys and 12.5% girls in rural areas of UK, teens have used illegal drugs. Why such a high score in the UK’s rural countryside? There is a high rate of poverty being experienced by the families of these teenagers. Many of them became depressed and tensed about their financial problems and get the help of these contagious drugs in order to distract themselves and lower their tension (Butts, J. and Roman, 2004). These teenagers living in rural parts have no such source of entertainment during the day. They feel a taste of boredom as they can’t hang out and go for clubs etc. With a thought resting in their minds that they have nothing to do during the day, they fall in this trap and using drugs become a favorite past time. Thus the creation of teen drug addicts is due to poverty and lack of social activity in rural areas of UK. With less and poor youth services in UK’s rural areas and poorly advertised, teenagers focus their attention on the use of drugs (Sloboda, 2005). According to ESPAD survey, UK teenagers are becoming the worst offenders of drugs, especially the legal drugs like alcohol and cigarettes. Teenagers i.e. living in Denmark topped the list in drinking league. UK government not finding an effective scientific approach to finish drug abuse among the teenagers but is going for a criminal justice approach. All around Europe, UK is the country which is spending the highest from its GDP for drug prevention; still the policies are not working. Many of heroine treatment centers are being set up by the UK government and have given great results but such scientific approach is still not being encouraged in UK, but some criminal justice practices, which are not giving good effective results. As UK has the opportunity to become the world leader, it still can work again this teen drug abuse and stop it from being ruined. From many years, the policy adopted by UK’s government is to reduce the use of drugs that harms the society. Policies against drug abuse will be passed after the identification of the harm of that specific drug to an individual living in UK and the degree of harm it passes to the entire society but the government is now keeping a check on maintaining the balance between freedom of choice and the harms caused to the citizens, families and society as a whole (Sloboda, 2005). Across U.K, it is widely accepted by people today that the addiction of drugs in teens can only be cured if the reasons that make them drugs addicts are identified in the first place. Government is now trying to set up awareness programs informing people about the reasons that lead to teen drug abuse so that they can be prevented and such an epidemic can be confronted with strong and effective steps. Conclusion This grave issue- increasing numbers of teen drug addicts in Britain need to be addressed through several strict policies implementation, better parenting and a responsible role being played by the government to eradicate drug abuse among teenagers. With better communication, training and awareness programs and responsible parenting, the severe condition of teenagers in UK can be improved easily. There has been many Rural Youth Projects being started by some responsible UK citizens who are helping to bring development and progress in the current status of teenagers who have destroyed their lives, getting attacked by drug abuse (Huppert and Meacher, 2011). UK being one the most developed areas around the world has to consider this serious issue, because these teenagers will set an example for the coming generation as well and worsen the situation. UK government needs to work against drug abuse hitting on teenagers because this has also left a negative impact on UK’s goodwill around the world. Teen Drug Abuse can simply crumble the whole nation. Increase in health issues due to excessive usage of drugs will also lead to more expenditure for the UK government. So, as a whole, it will affect the entire country. References Butts, J. and Roman, J. (2004). Juvenile Drug Courts and Teen Substance Abuse. London: The Urban Institute Huppert, J., Meacher, M. (2011). British drug policy is not working. The Guardian. Available at http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/nov/17/british-drug-policy Liddle, A.H. and Rowe, C.L. (2006). Adolescent Substance Abuse: Research and Clinical. UK: Cambridge University Press Paylor, I., Measham, F. and Asher, H. (2012). Social Work and Drug Use. NY: McGraw-Hill International Plant, M., Robertson, R. and Miller, P. (2010). Drug Nation: Patterns, Problems, Panics, and Policies. Oxford: Oxford University Press Russell, B. (2008). Teenage drug use increases. The Independent. Available at http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/teenage-drug-use-increases-908624.html Sloboda, Z. (2005). Epidemiology of Drug Abuse. London: Springer Schuckit, M.A. (2005). Drug and Alcohol Abuse: A Clinical Guide to Diagnosis and Treatment. NJ: Birkhauser Read More