How Drugs Affect Students - Report Example

w Dо Drugs Аffесt Studеnts Name of the Student: Name of the Instructor: Name of the course: Code of the course: Submission date: 1.0 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Aim/Purpose The purpose of this report is to investigate how drugs affect students. 1.2 Background/History Drugs are substances that are taken by persons, whether from a natural sources or manufactured, with an aim of altering the manner one act feel or think (Bruce & Tracey 2011, p.1). For legal drugs, some substances need to be prescribed by a medical practitioner while others can be purchased from chemist or pharmacy by any individual. Some of the drugs are legally available in the market but have some restrictions. For instance in US, there exist age limit for the legal usage of both tobacco and alcohol drugs. Every drug has injurious effects. Whether legal or illegal, drugs are harmful if consumed in too huge dosages or are used for a long period. It is worth noting that use of alcohol and other drugs in campuses and colleges is very rampant. Students offer diverse reasons why they use them, although majority ignore to evaluate the long run repercussions of their behaviours. Some studies have revealed shocking findings where it has been revealed that 13 % of teenagers have abused some type of hallucinogenic substance, 17% have abused cocaine, more than 50% have abused marijuana and 90% have abused alcohol. 1.3 Scope This investigation is going to be limited to finding the effects of drugs use among students. Instead of a generalized effects of drug use on the society at large. 1.4 Method. This report will undertake it research by use of secondary materials that are found in libraries and they will include published research journal articles, reports and books. These sources will be used to obtain the facts and statistics of the subject matter. It will be paramount to evaluate effects of drugs on students by focusing on specific areas. In order to tackle the issue at hand, this report will investigate three specific areas, which include drug and academic performance, drug abuse and dropout rate and drug abuse and sexual abuse. 2.0 Drug use affect students’ academic Performance 2.1 Research results According to research carried out by NSDUH (National Survey on Drug Use and Health) in period between 2002 and 2004, 70.4% of students with ages of between 12 and 17 years recorded that they had attained a grade of A or B in their previous semester, where 29.6% had achieved an average grade of C or lower (NSDUH 2006, p.1). An approximated 72.5% of students who were not involved in alcohol abuse in the previous months recorded grades of A or B in average in their previous semester in comparison with 67.% of students who abused alcoho but did not overindulged and 57.7% of students who overindulged on alcohol in the past months. A approximated 72.2% of students who didn’t abuse marijuana in the past months recorded a grade of A or B on average in their previous semester in comparison with 58% of students who abused marijuana on two to four days and 44.9% of students who abused marijuana on over five days in the previous months. 2.2 Discussion Research has been of the view that there is correlation between drug abuse behavior among student and their academic performances. Students who abuse drugs or alcohol have been linked with higher probability of performing dismally academic-wise and the opposite is true. The NSDUH interviewed young people between age of 12 and 17 years who confirmed that they were in institution in the past one year and they were asked about their grades or performances in the previous learning term or semester. They were also asked on abuse of marijuana and alcohol in the past month before the interview. This research defined overindulgence in alcohol as taking 5 or more beers on the same sitting. 2.3 Conclusion The number of incidences of the abuse of marijuana and alcohol during the previous one month were linked with performance in school and grades attained. On students who didn’t abuse alcohol in a period of one month prior to the interview, 72.5% recorded an average grade of A or B in their previous semester or academic term. There is a clear indication that drug abuse has a very vivid effect on academic performances of students. 3.0 Drug abuse and dropout rate 3.1 Research results A recent study carried out by the SAMSA (substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) evaluated the correlation between youths who have graduated and those who have dropped out from school and rate of drug abuse. This research evaluated data of NSDUH (National Survey on Drug Use and Health) from the year 2002 to the year 2010. It revealed that in young people between the ages of 16 years to 18 years, who were already in 12th grade abused drugs including alcohol at relatively reduced rated compared to those who dropped out of school. Students who dropped out of school were found to be have high probability than registered 12th grade students to have abused the following drugs in the one month prior to the research; non-medically prescribed drugs (9.5 % versus 5.1 %), marijuana ( 27.3 % versus 15.3 %), any other illegal drug (31.4 % versus 18.2 %), over-indulgence in alcohol (32.3% versus 23.8), alcohol (41.6 % versus 35.3 %) and cigarettes (56.8 % versus 22.4 %) (Robert, et al., 2013, p. 10). This trend was replicated in both females and males. 3.2 Discussion It is important to note that many researches have not been able to concentrate on the role played by substance use in the path to dropping out of school among youths. This is despite the clinical and empirical data, various research papers presented on the issue of dropping out in United States do not pay any attention on connection between dropout rate and drug use. However, few recent reviews and reports have started to include alcohol and drug use to the list of factors that contribute to this crisis, and hence present the remedy of drug use prevention as part of the answer to the crisis of ever-increasing dropping out rates. 3.3 Conclusion By relating young people who have graduated from high school with those who have dropped from school, these results have clearly revealed that dropouts have higher rates of drug abuse than those who graduated. The results also indicate that high school dropouts were more likely than those who graduated from high school (though not attending college) to have abused cigarettes and marijuana in the past one month prior to the interview. It was also confirmed that graduates and dropouts did not differ much on over drinking or alcohol abuse. 5.0 Impact of Drug use and sexual abuse 5.1 Research results The data on relationship between drug use and sexual abuse among students was obtained from the ASAAUS (Alcohol and Substance Abuse Awareness and Use study). This organization conducted a study on drug use in Prairie View A & M University. The institution had a total of 7262 by the year 2002. The study surveyed 456 African American graduates and under graduate level students. The sample was composed of 54% male and 70% were between the ages of 17 year to 19 years old, where 10 percent reported to have been involved in sexual abuse incidences within the institution in the year prior to this study (Queen, M., Ronald J., Charles E., Yacoubian, S & al, e. 2005, p. 28). Additionally, 46 percent reported to be abusing drugs for a long period of time and 28 percent reported to have used drugs in the previous month. The major illegal drugs reported to be on use were sedatives, amphetamines and marijuana among others. 5.2 Discussion Students who indicated to have history of sexual abuse inside the institution were almost 20 percent more likely to be using marijuana as compared to students who indicated no history of sexual abuse. Those who revealed history of sexual abuse inside the institution were four times more likely to indicated as long time user of opiate, hallucinogen, cocaine and amphetamine. 5.3 Conclusion There is strong connection between drug abuse and sexual abuse among university students. This is because there is higher likelihood of students who use drugs to been involved in sexual abuse incidences. 6.0 Recommendations It is revealed that drug abuse is connected to dismal performance of students in schools. It is paramount for institutions, parents and government to work hand in hand in fighting this scourge of drug abuse in order to improve performance of students. Additionally, it is important for government to accept that there is a strong connection between drug abuse and crisis of high dropout rate. This implies that the issue of drug abuse should be focused on while address the problem high dropout rates. On the other hand, use of illegal drugs has been highly connected with high rate of sexual abuse among university students. As a result, the institution should address the issue of drug abuse in their campaigns of fighting sexual abuses. References Bruce, E & Tracey, M 2011, Drug Abuse. The Rosen Publishing Group, New York. NSDUH, T 2006, ‘Academic Performance and Substance Use among Students Aged 12 to 17: 2002, 2003, and 2004’, The NHSDA Report, vol. 1, no.18, pp. 1-6. Robert, D. et al., 2013. ‘There is no problem so bad that alcohol and drugs will not make it worse’,. The Unrecognized Connection To Adolescent Substance Use, pp. 1-54. Queen, M., Ronald J., ,Charles E., Yacoubian, S & al, e. 2005, "The Relationship Between Sexual Abuse and Drug Use: A View of African-American College Students in Texas", Journal of Ethnicity in Substance Abuse, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 23-33. Read More