Why Do Teens Use Drugs and Alcohol?

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I choose to do my research on teen drug abuse because i felt like people really need to realize how important this issue is.Teen drug abuse is a big issue in teenage society today and i think this issue needs to be talked about more than it has. Teens need to be heard and also need to feel like their important.There are so many reasons why teens turn to drugs or alcohol and their parents need to learn about those reasons.Some of the reasons are peer pressure, lack of image attention, parents aren’t in their lives, they think that it’s cool, or because they see someone else is doing it.I"m a teen and i know about all the things teens go through in the world and all the problems they have.I’ve been through a lot of tough times and the reason why I chose not to turn to drugs is because i had my parents behind me and they let me know that drugs aren’t the way to go.I learned that teens need to realize that drugs can’t help you with your problems and that they sure can’t take place of your parents.I learned that parents only see what they want to see.They need to focus on their teens behavior and their academic performance because it can change from the drugs.Teens can go from straight A students to a failing student and the parents would sit back and not realize that their teen is failing in school because of lack of attention.The parents would go blaming their selves instead of seeing the truth that their teens chose that road.Teens should never feel like they can’t talk to their parents.The only reason why teens avoid talking to their parents because they feel like their going to start yelling and they don’t really know the whole story.I feel like this was a great research project for me because I learned a lot about Teen drug abuse and the causes and the affects.I hope I get through to a lot of people because of this and that people start to understand the risk and problems that teens go through.

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The reason I choose to do abuse of drugs is because I feel like this is a serious fact in the teenage population. I also choose this because the drug use is rising as teenagers get older. The parents of these teens really need to pay more attention and ask more questions to see how their teens are doing in their school work. I feel like they need to help them concentrate more in school and not let them go outside whenever they want to. Some teens use their friends as a way to get the drugs and they need to realize that they are hurting themselves and nobody else. I also chose this because i think i would be able to reach out to at least a couple of teens through this because some want to stop, but don’t know how. I am really interested in knowing why do teenagers use drugs instead of just talking about their problems with their parents or someone who is willing to listen. Many teens think about themselves and not what their doing to the people around them especially their parents. They actually feel like their helping themselves by using these type of drugs. I like the fact that if you tell a teen or try to help a teen you can’t go wrong if you tried to help. Teens feel like their problems will decrease or would go away if they do drugs but little do they know their making more problems for themselves. I also want teens to know that their not only hurting themselves but their also hurting their families and their friends. Teens can have a better life if their parents paid more image attention to their teens and not let them do whatever. Some teens just want their parents to at least punish them they don’t like to just be able to do whatever they want.

Today’s teens face more challenges than any other generation has. More is expected from them in their school. There are new drugs and forms of drugs that teen are able to get easily. Alcohol is popular as ever also and some teens prefer alcohol instead. Peer pressure is also takes a big tool on the teenage community and influence on their choices. Relationships with their parents and their siblings are important and have a strong pull in decision making.

Drugs play more of a role in a teenager’s attitude, schooling and health than most parents realize. Drugs are constantly increasing and teens are able to get them at anytime with no problem. Teens use alcohol and other drugs for many reasons. They may do it because they want to fit in with friends or certain groups. They may also take a drug or drink alcohol because they like the way it makes them feel. Or they may believe that it makes them more grown up. Teens tend to try new things and take risks, and they may take drugs or drink alcohol because it seems exciting. Teens with family members who have problems image with alcohol or other drugs are more likely to be affected and have the same type of problem. Also, teens who feel that they are not important to their parents or that their not being paid enough attention are at greater risk at doing drugs. Teens with poor self-esteem or emotional or mental problems, such as depression,  also are at increased risk. Some teens prefer their parents to just talk to them and not just let them do whatever they want. Teen drug abuse is not so much a crime but the things that the drug do to the teen body and their mind it should be. Parents should sometimes check up on their teens in school and also in the outside world because you never know just by checking up and not pressuring them just might help out.

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Substance abuse by teenagers effects the family unit as teens become more hostile, and their decision making becomes greatly impaired. Teens finding themselves using drugs or alcohol find that their familial relationships greatly suffer. They set bad examples for any younger siblings and create much more hostility to the family as a whole. Drug abuse by teenagers shouldn’t be tolerated by image parents of troubled or violent teens and appropriate help for their teens depending on depth of the problems should be made. Drugs have no rightful place anywhere in society, however, they have even less of a place in academic environments where teens are living in their most formative years. That the teen drug/alcohol user’s academic performance is severely impaired, along with his or her level of responsibility such as skipping class, failing to complete assignments speaks to the notion that drug and alcohol use is rampant throughout American middle and high schools. This abuse has produced teenage student body’s with many abusers whose relationships, reputations, futures, wallets, self-images and especially grades suffer as a direct result of the teen drug abuse.Drugs have no place anywhere in society; however, they have even less of a place in schools where teens are living in their most fragile years. That the teen drug/alcohol user’s academic performance is severely impaired, along with his or her level of responsibility; such as skipping class, failing to complete assignments , speaks to the notion that drug and alcohol use is rampant throughout American middle and high schools. This abuse has produced teenage student body’s with many abusers whose relationships, reputations, futures, , self-images and especially grades suffer as a of the teen drug abuse.Teens use drugs now to fit in with their friends.They also have to feel like their cool because some of their friends are in the cool student category.Some teens don’t even use drugs because that’s what they want to do but because their friends want them too.This is called peer pressure and this is common in highs and even in college.

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Teens use drugs to try to satisfy themselves and try to ease their pain. Teens also use drugs that they feel would help them like nobody else can because they imagefeel like other try to criticize them in all types of ways and drugs won’t. The U.S. is the leading state of teen drug abuse. Parents don’t try to pay andy attention to their teen as long as their going to school. Teens would continue to do what their doing as long as their parents aren’t paying any attention. I would like to know why do teens choose drugs to relax them when their going through hard times. I also would like to know if they know if they know that their destroying their lives nd their families. The drug problem in America has drawn the attention many pare nts in recent years. According to the 1998 National Household Survey on Teen Drug Abuse, nearly 10% of teens between the ages of twelve and seventeen used illegal drugs-a number less than 11.4 percent from just the year prior- including marijuana (8.3%), cocaine (0.8%) and inhalants (1.1%) (SAMHSA ,1998). Statistics for 2002 reflects a slight drop in teenage drug usage to 8.3 percent for overall consumption of all illicit drugs. Still imageheading the list as most commonly used drug for troubled teens was marijuana combined with one or more other drugs (20%). Cigarettes were found to be a strong precursor for troubled teens to who used illicit drugs, representing about eight times the number to those teens who smoked (48.1%) and those teens who did not (6.2%). Gender differences play a role as well amongst teenagers, with a greater majority of male teen using illegal drugs (12.3%) than their female teenage counterparts (10.9%) (SAMHSA, 2002).
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I Know – Let’s Really Scare Kids About Drugs! (NEW ANTI DRUG ADD CAMPAIGN)

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Stanton Peele

 

image In an episode of South Park (“My Future Self n’ Me”), (CLICK TO WATCH) Stan’s parents hire Motivation Corp. to discourage Stan from using drugs. The Corp. employs an actor to come to live with Stan’s family. The actor pretends to be Stan in the future after he has ruined his life by taking drugs and drinking. Now that’s an anti-drug program!

Watch out – Motivation Corp. may be coming near you soon. In March of this year, a group of television ads to counter Montana’s growing methamphetamine problem were launched. Aimed at children 12-17 years old, the ads present horrifying pictures of what happens to kids who use drugs. According to one publication, “Finally, someone in the ads production business has come through with a campaign that not only fulfills the goal of reaching their target audience, but also leaves an indelible impression on anyone who views what they have produced.” (See these ads at www.montanameth.org.)

But there have been harrowing anti-drug ad campaigns previously. In fact, they have rarely been absent from U.S. television.

You may recall the famous egg and frying pan ad, “This is your brain on drugs. Any questions?” This was created as part of a series begun in 1987 by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America — a non-profit coalition of advertising, media, and public relations professionals. The Partnership was given $200 million annually by the federal government. Media outlets contributed over $3 billion in free television time, making it the largest and most expensive anti-drug campaign ever.

However, the Institute for Social Research’s tracking study of teen drug use discovered that, despite their enormous exposure to such anti-drug ads, beginning in 1991, adolescents’ perceived risk of using drugs declined and drug use rose sharply. Support for the Partnership predictably waned.

To counteract the growth in drug use, in 1998 Bill Clinton image and his drug czar, General Barry McCaffrey,image announced a five year, $2 billion ad campaign. According to the Christian Science Monitor, “ It’s the largest media blitz ever undertaken by the federal government.  And antidrug ads like these will be hard to forget.” They included bugs crawling all over a teenage boy (a hallucination brought on by methamphetamines) and an ad you may recall depicting a girl demolishing her kitchen with a frying pan.

The government agency charged with research and science concerning drugs – the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) – commissioned a study of the effectiveness of this campaign over the period from September 1999 through June 2003. The study found the campaign had no effect on children, although parents were highly favorable towards it.

image The study found something even more surprising: “there were no significant reductions in marijuana use either leading up to or after the marijuana campaign for youth 12 to 18 years old between 2002 and 2003. Indeed there was evidence for an increase in past month and past year use among the target audience of 14- to 16-year-olds.”

Actually, years of systematic research have repeatedly found that intensely negative anti-drug messages are ineffective, and any changes measured in response to them are more likely to be in the direction of greater drug use. The mechanism to account for this “rebound” effect is that the exaggerations and drama of such messages turn children off, so that they reject anti-drug warnings entirely.

I witnessed several network and cable news shows on which the developers of the current campaign in Montana were interviewed. The programs were all highly favorable to the media backgrounds of these men. On no program that I saw was a drug prevention researcher interviewed.

If only they would have asked me to participate! I would have asked, “Did you and your colleagues examine the research on the effectiveness of drug prevention programs and media campaigns?”

Imagine if they answered “no” – the only answer I could anticipate. What arrogance and disrespect for research and the children the ads are supposed to reach!

Now that’s a news story – a highly funded, popular, and critically acclaimed program initiated with much media ballyhoo causes drug use.

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image Stanton Peele has been investigating, thinking, and writing about addiction since 1969. His first bombshell book, “Love and Addiction”, appeared in 1975. Its experiential and environmental approach to addiction revolutionized thinking on the subject by indicating that addiction is not limited to narcotics, or to drugs at all, and that addiction is a pattern of behavior and experience which is best understood by examining an individual’s relationship with his/her world. This is a distinctly nonmedical approach. It views addiction as a general pattern of behavior that nearly everyone experiences in varying degrees at one time or another.

 

 

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Posted on July 27th 2009 in ADDICTION NEWS, DRUG REHABILITATION, FYI DRUGS

Prosecutors now classifying meth production/sale as terrorism!

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image

BOONE – A Watauga County prosecutor is using a law intended to combat terrorism to fight the spread of methamphetamine laboratories in northwest North Carolina.

District Attorney Jerry Wilson has charged Martin Dwayne Miller, 24, of Todd with two counts of manufacturing a nuclear or chemical weapon in connection with a methamphetamine arrest Friday. Miller also is charged with eight other drug-related offenses.

He was being held in the Watauga County Jail under $505,000 bond.

"This is a two-edged sword," Wilson said. "Not only is the drug methamphetamine in itself a threat to both society and those using it, but the toxic compounds and deadly gases created as side products are also real threats."

In Buncombe County earlier this month, authorities found evidence of a drug lab at a Black Mountain motel.

State Bureau of Investigation agents searched a room at the Apple Blossom Motel on July 7. They found chemicals and glassware used to produce methamphetamines, according to a search warrant.

In May, officers charged a Swannanoa man with operating a meth lab in his bathroom. Paul Wilson, 38, faces four felony drug charges. The Metropolitan Enforcement Group, a local drug enforcement agency, conducted the investigation.

"We’re getting our first shock of it here now," Lt. Scott Allen of the agency said of meth production in May.

The most serious drug charges related to methamphetamine carry much lighter sentences than the weapons of mass destruction law.

The law carries a sentence ranging from 12 years to life in prison on each count. Wilson said he decided to use it while researching ways to slow the advance of methamphetamine into the region.

The law reads, in part, that the term nuclear, biological or chemical weapon of mass destruction applies to "any substance that is designed or has the capability to cause death or serious injury and … is or contains toxic or poisonous chemicals or their immediate precursors."

The chemicals used to manufacture methamphetamine are toxic and highly combustible.

Officials with the N.C. Administrative Office of the Courts and the N.C. Attorney General’s Office said they thought that the Watauga County charges are among the first filed under the weapons of mass destruction statutes.

Posted on July 2nd 2009 in ADDICTION NEWS

Methamphetamine is spreading from rural areas

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Methamphetamine is furiously spreading from rural areas, where it’s home-brewed, into our cities and suburbs. Who is vulnerable? Often, exhausted new moms with 24/7 demands. Here’s the cautionary tale of one mom-next-door who fell into addiction image and then fought her way back.

This story by Elizabeth Fish as told to Lisa Collier Cool is reprinted, with permission, from the April 2006 issue of Babytalk magazine.

When the police car pulled me over, my first thought was "Why am I getting a ticket?" It was 8:30 p.m. and I was on my way home from Target. My baby girl, Cameren, was asleep in her car seat. After telling me that I was driving five miles over the speed limit, the officer started asking my partner, Derek, a lot of questions. Who was the man who’d talked to Derek in one of the store aisles? We didn’t know — just a stranger who’d said hi. Did we have a walkie-talkie? No, I said, getting more bewildered by the minute.

All of a sudden, five more patrol cars pulled up, their lights flashing. The police ordered us out of our car so they could search it. Derek told me not to worry: The police would realize that imagethey’d made a mistake and let us go. But there was something I’d forgotten. "What’s this?" an officer demanded, holding up a capsule of white powder from my purse.

I’d never been so terrified in my life. I’d just been caught with methamphetamine. I didn’t know it at the time, but the man in Target had been caught shoplifting Sudafed, which contains ingredients used to make meth, and the police thought Derek and I might be running a lab. The officer told me to get into the patrol car with Cameren, while narcotics detectives tested the powder. Soon a female officer got into the car and read me my rights. I burst into tears when she patted me down. How could this be happening? I was barely 20 years old and had never been in any trouble.

By the time I arrived at Linn County Jail, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on that March night in 2005, it was close to midnight. I had to get naked in front of a female sheriff for a humiliating body search; then I was given a green jail uniform,

image photographed, and fingerprinted. I was escorted to a cell and locked in with three sleeping women. I lay down on a metal bunk bed as quietly as possible. All night long, I shivered under the thin prison blanket. I was afraid I’d just ruined my life — and I nearly had.

Instant Attraction

Derek and I had met in June 2003, at a friend’s birthday party. He was five years older than me, tall, and good-looking. But what immediately attracted me was that he was the quiet one in the crowd, and I’m shy, too. We started seeing each other every day, then moved in together.

After we’d been living together for three months, Derek, who is now 25, told me that he’d been using meth, on and off, for about a year. I was shocked — I’d never taken any drugs, not even pot. A few days later, he showed me a tiny bag of white powder. "Want to try some?" he asked. I hesitated, but I trusted Derek. "Just a little," I said.

He poured the meth onto image a piece of foil, held a lit match underneath, and inhaled the smoke. Then it was my turn. The rush was immediate. I was filled with energy and felt like I could do anything. Soon, I was doing meth a few times a week, staying up all night, cleaning the apartment and having intense conversations with Derek. When I took meth, shyness disappeared; I could talk for hours. It was like life had become one big party.

I began needing more meth to get the high I craved. I gave up my dream of becoming a makeup artist and quit school. I avoided my family. That is, until the day I found out I was pregnant. That changed everything — I was so afraid it would hurt the baby, I quit cold turkey. I had no withdrawal symptoms and didn’t even crave the drug.

Weary — and Weak

Cameren was born on November 23, 2004, healthy and beautiful, with blonde hair, big brown eyes, and dimpled cheeks. I set out to be the perfect mom. I used hand sanitizer before I touched imageher, and boiled her bottles. But Cameren was waking up every two hours and I was worn out. I knew just what would perk me up — and I started feeling that familiar urge.

I felt guilty when I started smoking meth again, but I also told myself it was helping me be a better mom. A few puffs gave me the energy to clean the apartment, do Cameren’s laundry, run some errands, and still be wide awake whenever she cried. I was very careful, though, never to smoke around Cameren. I’d wait until Derek got home, and the two of us would put our baby down securely in her crib, turn on an air purifer to keep smoke away from her, and go downstairs to light up. I somehow managed to convince myself that by doing it this way, I could take care of my habit — and my baby.

Then I ended up in jail. Because I had such a small amount of meth, I was charged only with a misdemeanor. I was given a court date and released without bail. A few days later, a caseworker from the Department of

 

imageHuman Services (DHS) arrived at our door. She told us that we had until midnight that night to show up at a nearby hospital for a urine test for meth. We were terrified.

Later that week, the caseworker returned, with a police officer. "We’re here to remove Cameren from your home," she announced. I ran to the crib, screaming, "Why are you doing this?" Derek started yelling that they had no right to take our child. But we both knew what had happened: Our drug tests had come back positive. I was hysterical, crying and asking to hold her one more time.

For five frantic days the only thing I knew was that my baby was in foster care. Then my mother was given custody of Cameren, and I was allowed to visit her a few times a week. It was a relief, but I hated leaving her and coming home to an empty crib. I’d hold her toys and cry, wondering if I’d ever get her back. She got so attached to my mom that there were tim

es when I visited that my baby didn’t even want me to hold her.

Crash-and-Burn Time

Still, I kept on smoking meth. It was crazy: The drug was what had caused all the problems, yet I turned to it to take away the pain. On the bad nights, I stayed up, talking to my mom on the phone, and aching from missing my baby.

My parents helped me find a lawyer, who negotiated a deal: I would enter a drug treatment program, perform 20 hours of community service, and pay a $550 fine. For six months, I’d be on probation, and if I stayed out of trouble, the drug charge would be cleared from my record.

But we still wouldn’t get Cameren back. In fact, DHS assigned us a new caseworker. She immediately suspected that I was still on meth, and warned me that if I didn’t get my act together, I could lose my parental rights permanently. That scared me enough to say, "Just tell me what to do." The caseworker felt it would be easier for Derek and me to get sober if we didn’t live together, so he went to live with his parents, and I moved in with my grandmother. She also told me about an Iowa self-help group called Moms Off Meth. I took her advice and went.

At my first meeting, on May 25, 2005, I was high. When it was my turn to talk, I was surprised at how emotional I got. Tears were streaming down my face as I shared my story about being arrested and losing my daughter. I was overwhelmed with the guilt and shame of admitting, for the first time, that I’d become an addict — and was in danger of losing Cameren forever.

Then other women told me that they’d all been down that road, they’d dealt with it, and they’d stopped using. Nearly every mom in the room had seen her child put into foster care thanks to meth addiction. I looked at these moms and thought, "If they can do it, by God, so can I."

Withdrawal made me feel miserable this time. You want to lie in bed, you’re very tired. You sweat. You feel nauseous. But every Wednesday, I went to Moms Off Meth. It was inspiring to hear what the other women were doing to stay clean. And I told them something that worked for me. One night the craving got so bad that I called my mom in tears. "Why don’t you come over?" she said. Although it wasn’t one of my scheduled visits, she figured that the caseworker wouldn’t mind. How could it be bad, if seeing my daughter helped remind me of why I had to stay sober? I played with Cameren, and hearing her laugh and coo helped so much. I put her down to sleep and lay down next to her. "I love you," I whispered. Getting my child back would be better than any drug, I thought. By the time I left that night, the craving had vanished.

When Derek saw my success at staying off meth for several months, he joined a treatment program, too. We began dating again, and helped each other stay sober. In September 2005, I went back to college. The next month, I completed probation — and rejoiced when the drug charge was officially wiped off my record.

Soon I had much more to celebrate. On January 20, 2006, Cameren moved back home with me. If I stay clean, I’ll regain full custody later in the year. That’s a challenge I’m up for: This whole mess made me realize that I need to be with my daughter. Getting a second chance to be Cameren’s mother is the greatest gift of all.

 

Lisa Collier Cool is an award-winning medical writer and mother of three in Pelham, New York.

Posted on July 1st 2009 in ADDICTION NEWS