Teenagers, Drugs, and Peer Pressure
Uploaded by tyson_626 on Feb 03, 2005
Teenagers, Drugs, and Peer Pressure
Drug use is an increasing problem among teenagers in today's high schools. Most drug use begins in the teenage years, these years are the most crucial in the maturing process. During these years adolescents are faced with the difficult tasks of discovering their self identity, clarifying their sexual roles, assenting independence, learning to cope with authority figures and searching for goals that would give their lives meaning. Drugs are readily available, adolescents are curious and venerable, and there is peer pressure to experiment, and there is a temptation to escape from conflicts. The use of drugs by teenagers is the result of a combination of factors such as peer pressure, curiosity, and availability. Drugs addiction among adolescents in turn lead to depression and suicide.
One of the most important reasons of teenage drug usage is peer pressure. Peer pressure represents social influences that effect adolescents, it can have a positive or a negative effect, depending on the person's social group. We are greatly influenced by the people around us. In today's schools, drugs are very common, peer pressure usually is the reason for their usage. If the people in your social group use drugs there will be pressure a direct or indirect pressure from them. A person may be offered to try drugs, which is direct pressure. Indirect pressure is when someone sees everyone around him using drugs and he might think that there is nothing wrong with using drugs. Person might try drugs just to fit in the social norms, even if a person has no intentions of using drugs, they might do it just to be considered "cool" by his/her friends. Today drugs are considered to be acceptable by many teenagers.
In today's highs schools the availability and variety of drugs is widespread. There is a demand for drugs and the supply is plentiful. Since drugs are so easy accessible, a natural interest in them may develop. A person may hear about drug experiences, or reactions of drug usage. Examples include," Hey the weed that he sold us was cool, I got stoned man". This response will create a sense of curiosity and may convince the person to try drugs themselves. Many teenagers today believe that their first use of drugs is safe. However even though there is no instant addiction with the first try, youngsters tend to experiment further. Soon a person could actively...