Do Teenagers Become Drug Addicts Because of Peer Pressure - Report Example

Drug Abuse Do Teenagers become drug addicts because of peer pressure? The addiction and drug abuse is an extremely popular phenomenon in several societies and communities nowadays. This issue has generated different feelings from interested parties; hence leading to different debates in the communities for several nights. Currently, there is no common agreement between the proponents and opponents of the drugs. The abuse of drugs affects all members of the society; starting from the young people to the elderly people who struggle a lot to make sure that their children are not suffering from this drug abuse issue. However, the biggest discussion is always geared towards the population of the teenagers. The teenage age group is hope for all countries that wants to grow in all aspects, and economically. The teenagers are the people who are carrying the biggest burden of the drug abuse problem. The government and nongovernmental organizations have carried out campaigns that are supposed to counter the problem of drugs and the effects of the drug abuse in the societies. The government has done this to make sure that the teenage age group is kept under drug free society and to motivate the teenagers to be able to live a righteous life free from the drug abuse. The main aim of this paper is to discuss the scientific data and information regarding this drug abuse topic, critique the quality of the designs of research that are used, the appropriateness of researchers and then the paper will give a conclusion on an interview that was carried out on a teenage who is recovering from the drug abuse usage (Sussman, 2011). Analyses of several researches give an insight into this drug abuse topic. The study tries to analyze the alcohol and tobacco consumption among the high school teenagers in the Porto district in Portugal. The research shows that the average age that the teenagers were to start drinking alcohol and using the tobacco was at age thirteen. This is a clear proof that the act of smoking and drinking starts early in to teenage life. The study also indicates that the majority of smokers in high school are at an old age bracket in the teenage. The results of the study also indicated that the teenage lades start to smoke way before the boys manage to smoke well. In addition to this study, the chances of the teenagers being addicted to smoking of an individual if the individual hangs around people who smoke is exceptionally high. For example, for teenagers with a friend who are used to smoke at exceptionally high rated are also likely to become addicted to smoking even without using the tobacco or the marijuana themselves. They will get addicted to smoke, and they are most likely to become affected by the smoke more than their friends, this is because the smokes have got filters and the amount of smoke that the friends will be inhaling will be filtered, but the non smokers will be inhaling the whole junk of the smoke to their bodies; hence they are more likely to become addicted quickly than others (Karch, 2008). The study shows that the teenagers who consumed alcohol was at a forty percent rate though the girls showed a minimal rate in the consumption of alcohol. Twenty percent of the teenagers started to take alcohol before they entered the teenage age group. This was an alarming rate for teenagers to start consuming liquor. They had a high probability of developing alcohol dependency syndrome. Most teenagers consume the distilled drinks as they are much cheaper than the alcoholic drinks. These drinks are mostly consumed during parties, and just afew of teenagers are able to go to pubs to drink.  The study on alcohol consumption demonstrates that when an individual is in the company of friends who drink will not only contribute to the individual to develop the ability to start drinking, but it will also make the individual to become addicted to drinking. The individual will always drink while in the company of the friends because one will feel secure enough to take a drink or two and know that they are secure. The study was conducted among the urban teenage school students found that most of students whose parents were mostly drinking and had drinks at home were most likely to engage themselves in the drinking game since they were also following the footsteps pf their parents. The study also indicated that the use of alcoholic drinks and tobacco had a terribly damaging impact in the results of the students’ academic levels and most students who were engaged in this drug abuse could drop out of school most often, some of them could not manage to live a straight life as they were eventually thrown out of their homes by their parents. This in turn, would increase the rates of the homeless young people in the streets; hence increasing levels of crimes. Girls who were addicted to drug abuse were subjected to the risk of contracting pregnancies and sexual harassment that could result in to sexually transmitted diseases or HIV/AIDs. The government can use the information from this study to be able to understand the needs that they could use to intervene and help the teenagers from the pandemic of drug abuse. Other regulatory bodies could also find this study particularly useful in such a way that the study could help them stop the drug abuse by teenagers and help the society to save its future leaders and the backbone of the economy. The researchers need to continue with the research on the health implications of the drug abuse by the teenagers. The second research, the social context of adolescent smoking and perspective of systems is being addressed. The study shows the results of the teenagers having friends outside the schools and how this influenced the emotions of the teenager. The friends who were outside had an excellent chance of manipulating the teenagers to consume alcohol and abuse drugs because of the stronger link that they possess over the teenager. Most of the people who use the programs that minimize the drug addiction never get to use drugs again. The study says that more than seventy percent of the teenagers who go to rehabilitation centers never get to go back again (Havelin, 2008). In the summary of the interview, Carols, a 22 year old individual was a drug addict. He started using drugs while he was in his final year of high school in Wellington High School. He was kicked out of his home by his parents when the drug use got serious and could not manage it by him. It is upon realizing that he had been kicked out of the house and that his life was getting out of hand when he started to get help from a rehabilitation center. After he got clean, he attended Palm Beach State College where he wanted to utmost in Business Administration, but he dropped out only after one year. He then started to work for his father and after four years of working there he quit to look for greener pastures. He then started to work at Lowes where he is currently a manager. He also has got his own apartment, and he is leading a clean life off drug abuse. He is an exceptionally strong case of a complete turnaround since he managed to change his life wholly and he is doing well for himself. According to the interview, Carols said that many adolescents enter in to drugs because they are running away from problems in the society and problems facing them at school. People take drugs to be able to escape from the reality of the world and the difficulties that are in the world currently. He also gave me the pros and cons of taking drugs. He said that the pros of taking drugs were to be able to feel expansive and be able to socialize with other friends. “A person cannot hang out with people who smoke and drink while he is not doing the same”, he said. He then told me that the cons of using drugs were that he could sometimes forget on what he was doing, or he was supposed to do. This made him to forego several of his duties at home and school, he also said that the drugs caused a significant brain damage to people who use drugs consistently. He also told me that the use of drugs made him not to care about anything in the world, not even about himself or his family. The drug users are prone to ignoring their loved ones, and they can do anything that affects other people yet they will not be remorseful about their acts. He then told me that he knows some of his friends who were using drugs and that some of them were undergoing rehabilitation at the moment of the interview. He said that no person has ever requested him to take drugs again after he became clean. He said that he uses self empowerment to be able to overcome the urge to take any kind of drugs. He also said that the use of weed made him access the part of his brain that he could not access while sober he stopped the use of drugs because they were illegal and he was committing a crime in using the drugs. After he was kicked out of the home by his parents he realized that he was doing a mistake and that he needed to change. He also says that the use of drugs made him lazy and he lacked the memory to do anything. The use of drugs is particularly amateurish and has got supremely serious implications to the health of the user and the community at large (Slavens, 2008). References Elaine Slavens, B. S. (2008). Peer Pressure: Deal With It Without Losing Your Cool. Canada: James Lorimer & Company. Havelin, K. (2008). Peer Pressure: How Can I Say No? Minnesota: Capstone Press. Karch, S. B. (2008). Drug Abuse Handbook. United Kingdom: CRC Press/Taylor & Francis. Steven Yale Sussman, S. L. (2011). Drug Abuse: Concepts, Prevention, and Cessation. 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