Why Do Teen Abuse Drugs?

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Drugs in the United States: why do teens abuse drugs? Over 23 million people who are 12 years of age and older need special care for an unlawful drug addiction, according to the 2009 Mental Health Services Administration’s survey on drug addiction. Only 2.6 million of the people who need treatment received it through a special facility (“DrugFacts: Treatment Statistics”). Drugs can have many negative effects on teens. There is a long list of reasons teens turn to drugs such as: popular media, rebellion, escape and self- medication, and peer pressure. The most popular reason teens abuse drugs is escape and self- medication. When teens are having a hard time with life, they want to find a way to cope with it, or escape, so they abuse …show more content…

Most teens have a fear of not being good enough, so if a buddy of theirs asks them to do something, even if it 's drugs, they do it in fear of not being good enough to for people. Bullying is also a big problem teens face, if a teen says no to drugs someone offers they may get bullied for a long time, no teen want to deal with that in high school. Peer pressure may not always be friends or other teens, it could be a parent or a friends parent. Parents play a big role in teens life and if they ask them to abuse drugs with them and say it is okay, the teen will most likely do it because no teen wants to disappoint their parents. Teens see drugs so much in their daily lives they start to think that it is okay. Drugs are becoming more readily available for teen to gain access to. When teens get close to someone they will do almost anything to keep that person in their life, even if doing drugs is what it take, because it is hard to find someone to bond with and build a friendship with. Rebellion is another reason teens abuse drugs. Teenagers will go to a high extent just to rebel their parents or authority. This extent is often drug abuse. When a parent makes rules or forbids something, it makes teens want to do it. Sometimes it may be a not very harmful drug like marijuana, or it may be something more serious like methamphetamines, meth, depending on the teen and how they are feeling and what has happened in their

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