Teenage Drug Abuse

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Teenage drug abuse is an issue that can result from a wide variety of social influences, stressful events, and mental disorders. Drug abuse among adolescents is a troubling issue because it decreases focus, increases the chance of consistency in behavior during adulthood, increases the chances of developing emotional issues, permanently damages the brain, and damages tissues in every system that can lead to death. Previous scientific research has identified that social factors, including the media and peers, play an important role in psychological development and impact the adolescent's decision to start experimenting with substances (Botvin 888). Appropriate solutions for the teenage drug abuse issue already exist, but the only remaining obstacle is the lack of effort in implementing proven methods of effective drug abuse treatments.

According to Dryden-Edwards, statistics in 2010 show that about 30 percent of 10th graders in the United States have experimented with marijuana, and 22.5 percent of 12th graders have used a wide variety of drugs, including cocaine, Vicodin, inhalants, Ecstasy, and anabolic steroids (“Teen Drug Abuse”). In addition, Dryden-Edwards points out that some trends suggest substance abuse among adolescents has been declining since 2002, but other statistics display an increase of other substance abuse, so only the object of substance abuse has changed while the main issue remains consistent and continues to develop (“Teen Drug Abuse”).

Furthermore, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, drug addiction is classified as a mental illness because it causes disturbance in regular patterns of needs and desires, and drug abuse frequently co-exists with other mental disorders (“Comorbidity: Addictio...

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...ents would decrease significantly.

Although the amount of risk factors for developing drug abuse makes it impossible to address all potential risk factors at the same time, significant progress can be made through implementing changes slowly. The scientific research on effective therapeutic methods has already suggested potential changes in therapeutic models and social influences that can assist in drug abuse prevention and treatment. Unfortunately, scientific research is ahead of actual implementations of the findings on solving drug abuse issues among adolescents. Rather than conducting further research on the topic, implementing the current findings should be the primary aim because statistics suggest that the teenage drug abuse issue is growing continuously, and theoretical knowledge will not prove useful in solving that issue until is established in practice.

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