Adolescent Drug Abuse

Adolecent Drug Abuse

By: Rylee Hagens

Index

Table of Contents

Types of Drug Abuse

Influences

Effects

Public Policies

Summary

Types of Substance AbuseAdolescents tend to grow fond of substances due to popularity and peer pressure. Some substances include those below and as years go on most of the time the rate of kids using them continues to increase..

Inhalants

Alcohol:

Things from household items or industrial items that kids use to get an immediate high

Over drinking, underage drinking, and any form of consuming alcohol illegally are ways adolescents abuse this substance

Marijuana

Pills/Medications

Otc medications or prescription medications are found in the common abuse of adolecents.

Marijana is a commonly used drug by adolescents and is easily abused by under age kids.

Influences:

Influences can vary depending on the background of the person but they are found everywhere. Some influence examples are listed below.

• Availability/Access
• Peer influence or pressure
• Personal prefereneces or background
• At home or family influence
• Mental health
• Early age usage

+Brain Development

The adolecent brain can have issues developing or could never develop properly.

Effects:

IIndependency

How can drug abuse effect adolescents?

Adolescents will continuously lean on someone else for help and will never have the sense of independence.

Drug abuse can affect anyone in many dfferent ways. Specifially in adolescents drug abuse can affect the way the brain works and can slow down development in many aspects. The chances of becoming independent decreases. Injuries can occur mentally and physically and can lead to things much worse if not taken care of.

Injury

They can experience injuries mentally and physically from drug abuse whether it be health injuries or accidents.

Self harm

Some will conflict self harm or even harm to others when on or using drugs. Things such as homicide or suicide could occur.

Public Policy

There are many different policies put in place to help contain the amount of substance abuse that occurs in general but especially in adolescents. As we look further into it we find that there are at least three policies that are used to help with this issue and they are listed below.

Policy 1

Policy 3

Policy 2

A third policy in place are things such as educational programs that teach students about the risks of things such as drugs. It also gives them a place to go and confide if they have ever been a victim of drug abuse.

Age restriction is a second policy that we see helps regulate drug abuse. With things in place such as age restrictions that do not allow minors to purchase or consume alcohol.

Law enforcement and their involvement acts as a policy. The justice system is a way to place rules and regulations in front of drug abuse. It could be thought of as a barrier of some sort.

Adolescent drug abuse is a real problem and needs serious attention brought to it. Adolescent drug abuse is something that is easier dealt with when caught early on but with influences everywhere it is soemthing that happens everywhere. Although there are many forms of drug abuse there are also many forms of policies in placce to help the numbers at hand stay where they are and hopefully decrease. Drug abuse can cause serious harm within anyone who uses them but especially adolescents and this is a problem that needs light shed on it so more help can be brought to the table before it is too late for some.

Works Cited:

(Some information found in websites below.)

• “Adolescent substance use: Findings from a state-wide pilot parent education program - BMC Public Health.” BMC Public Health, 21 March 2022, https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-022-12899-2. Accessed 11 October 2023.
• “Consequences of youth substance abuse.” Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, https://ojjdp.ojp.gov/sites/g/files/xyckuh176/files/pubs/drugid/ration-03.html. Accessed 10 October 2023.
• “Evidence-Based Interventions for Preventing Substance Use Disorders in Adolescents.” NCBI, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2916744/. Accessed 11 October 2023.
• Gray, Kevin M., and Lindsay M. Squeglia. “Research Review: What Have We Learned About Adolescent Substance Use?” NCBI, 17 July 2017, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5771977/. Accessed 11 October 2023.