What’s with Teens and Drugs?

          Drugs are very popular with today’s youth. Many teens believe that if they do drugs then they will be the cool kids on campus. Smoking cigarettes is just the first step when youths start to turn to drugs. According to the American Lung Association, they estimate that every minute 4,800 teens will take their first drag of a cigarette. Of those 4,800, about 2,000 will become chain smokers, which lead to the fact that 80 percent of adult smokers started when they were teens [1]. Many teens believe that smoking makes them feel like they are cool and living dangerously. Teens who unwittingly take that first drag of the cigarette aren’t concerned that they can get addicted after they are done with that first cigarette. Teens who smoke feel a rush knowing that they are breaking the law along with their parents rules, which is addiction enough for them to smoke. All kids want attention and they will do anything to attain it, whether it’s good or bad. By smoking, teens get all sorts of looks from other teens and adults aren’t too happy about it and have no idea what to do. Research has shown that the teens between 13 and 17 years old who smoke daily are the ones who are more likely to use other drugs. Peer pressure is a big cause for today’s youth, which leads to the use of other drugs [1].

            Many teens succumb to peer pressure. When teens see their friends taking drugs, they usually get threatened with the usual terms of “all the cool kids do it” or “if you are my friend then you would do it too.” The problem with peer pressure is that most of the time it works. Teens don’t think about the consequences but instead their minds are in the now mode. Marijuana is the number one drug teens use, next to smoking. About half of the people in the United States have used marijuana [2]. Marijuana is called the gateway drug, which means it is the first step for people to start using more hardcore drugs. According to a 2009 survey called Monitoring the Future, about 7 percent of 8th-graders, 16 percent of 10th-graders, and 21 percent of 12th-graders had used marijuana in the month before the survey. In fact, marijuana use declined from the late 1990s through 2007, with a decrease in past-year use of more than 20 percent in all three grades combined from 2000 to 2007. Unfortunately, this trend appears to be slowing, and marijuana use remains at unacceptably high levels, as the most commonly used illegal drug [3].

[1] “Teens and Smoking Tobacco” Accessed on December 5, 2010. http://www.teendrugabuse.us/teensmoking.html

[2] “Drugs That Teens Abuse” Accessed on December 5, 2010. http://www.focusas.com/SubstanceAbuse-Drugs.html

[3] “Marijuana” Accessed on December 5, 2010. http://teens.drugabuse.gov/facts/facts_mj1.php