Addictions

What causes children and teens to start abusing drugs and possible solutions.

Children as young as third graders are beginning to experiment with drugs. There are many factors that influence drug use among children and teenagers, but there is not enough being done to prevent it. Drug abuse is defined as “the nonmedical abuse of a drug that interferes with a healthy and productive life” (Musto 361). There are many harmful biological effects drug use can have on a person. The government does many things to try to stop drug abuse, such as making new laws and taking down suppliers, but they are clearly not doing a good job if young children can get a hold of drugs. Also, the media’s portrayal of drug users is not being very helpful in the war on drugs. The problem of drug abuse among children and teenagers may be a hard one to solve, but there are certainly things we can do to stop the prevalence of it among so many minors.
Many health problems, both physical and mental, can be caused from drug use. Different drugs have different effects. Kids usually get hooked onto more addicting and powerful substances with gateway drugs. Gateway drugs lead users on to a more extensive use of other addictive drugs. The most common gateway drug, marijuana, can slow down and temporarily impair motor skills, coordination, and response time will also decrease (Smith 42-45). Other drugs, such as cocaine, cause more serious health problems. Cocaine can cause anxiety and irritability. It also produces another deadly effect, which is high blood pressure. This can often lead to a stroke. Drug abuse of any kind can damage organs such as the liver, heart, and brain. Using an infected needle can cause blood poisoning or HIV/AIDS. Malnutrition occurs often in drug users, and sometimes death as a result of overdosing. After using drugs for a long time, tolerance, a resistance to the effects of drugs, can also occur. For some addicts, withdrawal problems start when trying to quit, meaning that their bodies have serious reactions (Musto 362-364). In addition, using drugs repeatedly will eventually cause the user’s brain structure and functions to change. Evidence suggests that drugs will become the brain’s top, or sometimes sole, priority for an addict (Leshner). Drug users may claim to feel great when they are high, but using drugs will cause users to be miserable for the rest of their short lives.

There are many factors that can cause a child to start using and abusing drugs. Many people start for the euphoria they get when they are high, but those feelings are only a temporary getaway from the real world. Some people start doing drugs without a worry, thinking that they will not be harmed. Others try drugs like alcohol and tobacco while being underage just to look grown-up or to fit in (Musto 361-362). Many people also say peer pressure is a huge cause for drug abuse. However, according to Addison Trail’s health instructor Kali Kluxdal, doing drugs is a voluntary choice and peer pressure has nothing to do with it. According to a survey of 1,000 teens conducted by the Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Colombia University in New York City, twenty-seven percent of students lived with “hands-on” parents, eighteen percent lived in “hands-off” families, and fifty-two percent lived in “in-between” families. Students who lived in “in-between” families were two times more likely than those with “hands-on” families to use drugs. Students with “hands-off” families were an amazing four times more likely to use drugs. Students were considered to have “hands-on” families if at least ten of the twelve key rules on their survey were enforced (VanTine). Even though all of these factors can contribute to the beginning of drug use, the actual decision of whether or not to use drugs remains up to the individual.

The frequent appearance of drugs in the media is another big factor in teen drug use. A major study by the Department of Health and Human Services done in 1997 included 200 of the most popular movies of the year and 1000 of the most popular songs from various genres. The results showed that ninety-eight percent of movies studied depicted illicit drugs, alcohol, tobacco, or over-the-counter/prescription medicines. Alcohol and tobacco appeared in more than ninety percent of the movies and illicit drugs appeared in twenty-two percent. In the music study, the most drug references came up in rap and hip-hop music. Illicit drugs were mentioned in sixty-three percent of rap songs, versus nearly ten percent in the other categories. In song lyrics that mentioned illicit drugs, marijuana was the most frequent of them, mentioned in sixty-three percent of the songs (Lichtblau). The main question here is whether or not exposure to such things in movies and music really does lead to drug use and experimentation. If it does, whose fault is it, the media or the parents”

The way the media portrays drug use is also a big factor in drug abuse. In movies and television shows, the characters are almost always shown having fun without any negative consequences. Even primetime television shows like FOX’s That 70’s Show show the characters having fun and laughing around a table while getting high. Although the actual drug use isn’t shown on television because of rating purposes, the babbling of the characters and the smoke in the background make it clear that they are doing drugs (Sitcom’s Teen Drug Abuse Stirs Debate). In many comedy movies, such as Scary Movie, How High, and Half Baked, people using drugs are always having fun and the health risks and health related problems caused by drugs are never shown. If children are exposed to fun, happy images of people using drugs, it is giving them a bad impression and a wrong idea of what drugs can do.

As drug use increases, so does the violence followed by it. Between fifty and seventy percent of people who are arrested are addicted to drugs (Leshner). Studies also showed that more crimes are committed by drug addicts to acquire drugs and/or money to buy even more drugs. Also, eighty percent of the men and women in jail or prison are addicted to some type of illegal drug. In addition, people who live in households where drugs are used are eleven times more likely to be killed than those living in drug free households (Friedman). Even though drugs may only be harming the people who use them primarily, the rest of the country suffers.

Drug addicts are also having a large effect on the United States as a whole. New laws and drug control acts are some very obvious signs of this. Also, new institutions have been set up for drug addicts to rehabilitate in (Larkin 277). In addition to those effects, drug users are troubling the economy. Since factory workers who use drugs are more prone to making mistakes, production will go down, thus raising prices. Drug addicts are also costing the United States an extra $143 billion for hospitalization, property damage, and law enforcement (Musto 364). No one likes to pay for someone else’s stupidity, so it is best to start changing the ways to deal with drug usage now.

It seems as though everyone has his or her own opinion as to how to solve the drug problem in the United States. For those people who may already be at risk for becoming addicted to any types of drugs, there are certain warning signs. Slurred speech and drowsiness are often prevalent in people with alcohol problems. Cocaine users are usually restless and very talkative. Since those people have already been affected, the only solutions for their problems are treatment, either through medication, group therapy, or detoxification. Detoxification involves the gradual stopping of drug usage, and it is often done to prevent the harsh withdrawal symptoms that can occur with a sudden stop. Unfortunately, these treatments are not always successful (Musto 363-364).

The best way to go would be to stop drug abuse before it stops. Some people say the demand for drugs should be lowered, through programs at school, church, etc., Anti-Drug Abuse Acts, and drug testing. Then, there are those who believe in cutting the supply of drugs, by making severe punishments for those who are caught trafficking, and having more patrols at United States borders. The only problem with this idea is that a lot of drugs from Latin America and Asia still enter the country. Finally, there are those who think that legalizing drugs is the solution to the problems of drug abuse in the United States. The theory goes like this: legalizing drugs will make them available at low prices, which will put drug dealers out of business. This will end a lot of drug related crime, and also allow the billions of dollars spent on drug law enforcement to be spent on drug education and treatment. However, this is also an incomplete theory, because the problems placed on individuals by using drugs will still be present. The legalization solution only provides the country with a means of stopping the major money loss that occurs (Muston 364-365). Besides all of these solutions, there are key rules a parent should follow, to help ensure drug free children. They are: know where he/she is, ask where he/she is going, express the extreme disapproval of drug use they feel, restrict shows that are not appropriate, monitor internet surfing, restrict CDs with drug-promoting lyrics, know how he/she is doing in school, dine as a family, allow no television during dinner, enforce a curfew, require regular chores, and be home when he/she is (VanTine). Those rules may not be helpful to all parents, but those are preventive measures that are worth taking from the beginning.

Drugs are a big problem in society and pose a dangerous health risk with many negative consequences to children and teenagers. With the most influences coming from music and movies, ratings should be stricter. Parents also need to be more aware of the media and what his or her child watches or listens to. With those possible solutions, drug use among children and teens may steadily decrease.