Over the past half century drugs has become a prevalent issue among U.S teens. Drugs have gotten into the hands of teens and is a epidemic across the U.S, however there are multiple tactics authorities and parents can take to prevent teens from falling down the pit of drug addiction by bringing in effective ways to stop this epidemic. A teen may take drugs to satisfy the need he or she feels. The need might be to relieve stress or to feel like part of a group. It might be to satisfy curiosity or to rebel against authority . Often the young adults need is combined with a lack of information about the drug Teens are at a critical time of development. Drugs can and will hinder that critical development that a teen needs to become a well functioning adult. Teens are more susceptible to drugs and are often uneducated about the risks of doing drugs,hence why so many do it. Teens need to be taught from younger ages all the risks about drugs. Parents also need to be more observant of they’re children, and just be more supportive of they’re child. Aware ness needs to be spread so that teens will be prevented from abusing substances.
Teens that experiment with drugs often risk they’re safety and health. There are hundreds of reasons a teen could abuse substances. Some examples may be they have a family history of substances abuse which can lead to them doing drugs and not having a real understanding of what harm it can do to them. Mental health issues like depression or anxiety. A past of traumatic memories which they are attempting to eradicate, and the biggest and most common reason of all peer pressure from there respective peers. The biggest risk of teens doing drugs is them getting addicted from there choice of drug. There are however solutions parents and teachers can take to prevent these issues “Getting sober was one of the three pivotal events in my life, along with becoming an actor and having a child. Of the three, finding my sobriety was the hardest thing.”(Downey). There are multiple ways parents can help prevent there teens from substance abuse, such as simply having a conversation about it. They can discuss the reasons not do drugs, limit there media use because many songs glorify drug use, discuss ways to say no to peer pressure and tell them about the parents own drug issues and how tough it was. Tell them about the specific risks taken when abusing substances.
The teen brain takes the most damage when abusing drugs. The prefrontal cortex is still developing in there adolescent brain. The prefrontal cortex has to do with decision making and weighing out the pros and cons of a situations. Since the cortex it isn’t fully developed teens mostly use the limbic system to make decisions. Teens will often make decisions based on instant gratification and feeling happy. Which leads them to take more risks than adults. As the teen brain grows and matures the body strengthens the pathway between neurons. Exposing the teen brain to narcotics can vastly switch how the pathways are organized and how the brain operates. The impact of substance use can cause issues with memory, attention, and problem solving that can last till adulthood. The media music, and film industry have a huge impact on teens brains. Music, specifically rap often talks about drugs, and to the young viewer it may seems like the perfect and fun life which could influence them.
Many young adults today do drugs and has been increasing for the past two decades. In schools they have attempted to help prevent and limit the use of substances by teens. However they aren’t effective most of the time and teens will do as they please. For most of drug education they use scare tactics. To make teens terrified of trying them. However most of the time it does not work. Young people are not always deterred by horror and on the contrary it may make it more appealing to them and secondly they aren’t supported by facts. Which can make the claims seem untrustworthy and may go try to find out for themselves.
