Tim Seaton

Drugs are a growing problem for teens in our society. They affect them negatively in many ways. They are seen being used in schools and not just public schools. Students in private and Christian schools are not immune to the temptation either. Kids are enticed to use them by their friends and sometimes fall prey to the myth using them “just once” won’t hurt them. Drugs are addictive, drawing in users until more and more time and money are spent procuring the drugs and being high on them. Research shows drugs lower life satisfaction, lead to poorer physical and mental health, and increase relationship problems for users. They negatively affect people by numerous means and can have an impact on users for the rest of their lives.

The number one reason for people using drugs is people around them. When kids are able to get their hands on drugs, whether by buying them or by any other means, they are going to make sure their friends know about it. Then their friends might want some of their stash if they use drugs. Most teens see various people using substances. They see parents, friends, and other people smoking, drinking, and sometimes using other substances. The teen social scene often revolves around drinking and smoking. Through social media, kids urge each other to use them and show off when they do. A teen is just as likely to start using a substance if it is readily available. They will use what they can find, whether cigarettes or pot or marijuana. If they see all their friends enjoying it, they are more likely to do it because they want to fit in. In their minds, they see drugs as just another part of a regular teens life.

Popular media is another factor in why kids may want to do drugs. In a recent study, 47% of teens agreed TV shows and movies made it look like drugs were okay to use. It also showed 12-17-year-olds who saw more than three “R”-rated movies per month were seven times more likely to smoke cigarettes, six times more likely to use marijuana, and five time more likely to drink alcohol than kids who hadn’t watched “R”-rated films.

Different rebellious teens choose different substances to use based on their personalities. Alcohol is the drug of choice for the angry teenager because it frees him to behave aggressively. Methamphetamine, or meth, also encourages aggressive, violent behavior, and can be far more dangerous and potent than alcohol. Marijuana, on the other hand, often seems to reduce aggression and is more of an avoidance drug. LSD and hallucinogens are also escape drugs, often used by young people who feel misunderstood and may long to escape to a more idealistic, kind world. Smoking cigarettes can be a form of rebellion to flaunt their independence and make their parents angry. The reasons for teenage drug-use are as complex as teenagers themselves.

Kids also use drugs to escape things or for self-medication. Depending on the substance they are using, they may feel blissfully oblivious, wonderfully happy, or energized and confident. Since the teenage years can be tough and take a toll on them, they often feel depressed. When they are given the chance to use something that can calm them down like marijuana, they will take it. They use any drug that appeals to them at the time that will express their emotions.

Perhaps the most avoidable cause of substance abuse is inaccurate information about drugs and alcohol. Many teenagers have friends who claim to be experts on various recreational substances, and they’re happy to assure her the risks are minimal. Educating teens can be the best way to avoid drug usage in their lives. Parents are also a leading factor for adolescents to stop using drugs. Since they have grown up with them, the child will believe and follow what their parents say most of the time, unless swayed to otherwise by a group of people who have influence over them.

Some signs people may be using drugs are bloodshot eyes, bad grades, loss of interest in topics they are usually interested in, frequent hunger, frequent smell of smoke on clothes, or unusual tiredness. Some other ways to identify if someone you know is abusing drugs is by seeing unusual behavior. If someone starts stealing for no reason when he usually won’t, that is a sign he may be using drugs. Another way to tell is if he stops meeting requirements for work or school he usually meets. Some other ways are slurring of speech, drowsiness and being tired when he shouldn’t be, emotional changes, and a lower body temperature. If you see many of these signs, ask because people are more willing to open up about an addiction if confronted first.

Many teens use drugs often. One in five teens have abused prescription medications, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Approximately 21% of 12^th graders have admitted to using marijuana in the past month. 1 in 3 parents believe there is not much they can do to prevent their kids from using drugs despite the fact parents are the leading factor in drug usage prevention. More teens die from prescription drugs than heroin and cocaine combined every year. In 2013, more high school seniors regularly used marijuana than cigarettes. 22.7% used marijuana and only 16.3% smoked. 60% of seniors see marijuana as a harmless substance, even though the “thc” (the harmful substance in marijuana) is nearly 5 times stronger than 20 years ago. By eighth grade, 28% of adolescents have consumed alcohol, 15% have smoked, and 16.5% have used marijuana. Young kids who hear drugs are dangerous are 50% less likely to use them after hearing it from their parents. 6.5% of high school seniors use marijuana daily, up by 5.1% five years ago. Less than 20% of twelfth graders think occasional use is harmful. Around 50% of high school students think it isn’t harmful to use cocaine once or twice.

Many drugs are used by teens now since they are more readily available. One of the most used drugs is marijuana. As stated before, marijuana is a calming drug often used by teens to calm themselves down. In a recent study, more than 1 in 3 Americans said they have used marijuana in their lifetime. Using it often can affect your body and mind. Teens use it in any way they can, whether putting it in food, through drinks, or straight up. No matter how it gets in your body, it still affects you in harmful ways. It affects almost every organ in your body. It also affects your immune system and your nervous system. When you smoke it, the effects take place almost instantly. If the marijuana is used through foods or drinks, the effects may take a little while to start, but both smoking and through food and drink have effects that usually end after 3-4 hours. Smoking it can lead to a heart rate two times greater than normal. This is why some people have a heart attack right after they smoke pot. It can affect your breathing, make you have a lower blood pressure, and can also affect your blood sugar. Research has not been able to show if marijuana affects lung cancer, but we do know it irritates your lungs, which is why smokers will often have a bad coughing and breathing problem. Other physical effects include dizziness, shallow breathing, red eyes and dilated pupils, dry mouth, increased appetite, and slower reaction times. This leads to a doubled chance of an accident while driving after using a substance. Most people use marijuana to make them feel more relaxed, happy, or withdrawn from society. Some mental problems are a distorted sense of time, random thinking, paranoia, anxiety, depression, and short-term memory loss. Like the physical effects, mental effects can wear off after a few hours. Though you may have heard marijuana isn’t addictive, it is. 10% of people who use it say they have become dependent on it. Doctors aren’t sure if marijuana is a gateway drug that leads people to use “harder” drugs like cocaine and heroin. The “thc,” (tetrahydrocannabinol) the main mind-altering object in marijuana, has increased by a wide margin over the past few years. The leaves used to have around 1%-4% of thc in them, and now they have around 7% in them. Scientist are worried this will raise the dependency rate and the psychological effects of the drug. Even when buying it legally as a medicine, it is still hard to tell how much thc is in the medicine, so the effects can be differing. Marijuana can also affect you even more negatively if you have problems like liver disease, low blood pressure, or diabetes. Research shows a link between marijuana use and mental health problems like depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, short-term psychosis, and schizophrenia. While it’s not clear if marijuana causes these conditions, it can make them worse.

Another heavily used drug is alcohol. Alcohol has been classified as wine, beer, whiskey, vodka, spirits, gin, liquor, and many others. It is accessible to people through legal means and illegal ways too. They can access it at bars where alcohol is drunk and used as the main source of entertainment. It is used at parties, sometimes legally, sometimes not. It is used at homes in the form of wine and beer. Not all alcohol is bad to use occasionally. Since the age limit for drinking is at 21, kids at or above that age can legally drink and buy alcohol. They can then take it anywhere, and there are no restrictions, they can get drunk with nobody there to keep them in check. They use it, and then they don’t or can’t think and so they go and drive or do something else stupid. Often, this ends up in a car accident and many times death of either them, passengers in their car, or death in another car.

Alcohol can affect many parts of your body. Your brain is interfered with as the alcohol takes effect and so it can’t think right, and it messes with your timing also. It also affects your heart. If you drink over a long period of time or too much at one time, it can cause cardiomyopathy, arrhythmias, stroke, and high blood pressure. Research does show drinking a little bit of alcohol can help protect healthy adults from developing coronary heart disease. Heavy drinking also takes effect on your liver and can lead to many problems and liver inflammations including steatosis, or fatty liver, alcoholic hepatitis, fibrosis, and cirrhosis. Damage can happen to the pancreatitis also. Alcohol causes the pancreas to produce toxic substances that can eventually lead to pancreatitis, a dangerous inflammation and swelling of the blood vessels in the pancreas that prevents proper digestion. Drinking alcohol can also lead to a greater risk of certain cancers, such as mouth, esophagus, throat, liver, and breast. Drinking too much alcohol can also weaken your immune system, making your body easier to target by diseases. Chronic drinkers are more liable to contract diseases like pneumonia and tuberculosis than people who do not drink much. Drinking a lot on one occasion slows your body’s ability to ward off infections, even after up to 24 hours.

Children who have parents who abuse substances are affected even by their parents drinking. Often kids are sexually abused by drunk parents. Sometimes, kids are physically or verbally abused in extreme ways. Sometimes the kids are forced to hide their parent’s addiction for fear of being hurt. Often, these kids are left at home and neglected for hours on end. They are ignored and so their needs aren’t being met, leaving them helpless. Often, people in prison had tumultuous upbringings from drug abusing homes. Lots of them even knew about friends who abused drugs, but their family did it, so they figured it was fine to do.

This goes to show kids aren’t affected by just what they do, but also by those around them. They get influenced and go with what their friends do and what their family does. If you know people who use and abuse drugs, stand up to it and show them it is unsafe, unhealthy, and sinful. We need to have those examples in society of people who have led others to be healthy, God loving people who came out of their addictions because others stood up for what was right. Could you be the person who leads a friend out of an addiction and makes their life so much better? If you think so, have them call 1-888-744-0069 for the addiction hotline for help. Drugs are definitely a negative influence on our lives, planted there by Satan to lead us deeper into the bottomless pit of sin. Don’t let him influence you. Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Bibliography

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“Drug Addiction.” Symptoms. Mayo Clinic, n.d. http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/drug-addiction/basics/symptoms/CON-20020970. 09 Nov. 2016.

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