Causes Of Drug Abuse Among Youth

The rise of cases of drug abuse amongst youth has become a cause of worry, and most governments and authorities are looking for measures for preventing the same. Prevention of drug abuse is only possible through awareness about the harmful effects of the same and also by trying to reduce the supply and demand chain. These days a person can get addicted to various kinds of drugs, foods and even certain fluids. However the addiction to any kind of drug is different from the addictions to food and alcohol.

Hence the level of addiction in these contexts differs and there are some drugs, which are harmful and can be fatal. There are detrimental addictions, which can be fatal in the long run and one of them is drug abuse. Youth are still not aware about drug abuse facts and these are vital for the health and general well being of the body. The rise of drug abuse in youth has a wide range of definitions. Most of these are related to taking a psychoactive drug or performance enhancing drug, which can be for a non-therapeutic or non-medical effect.

All forms of drug abuse result in negative judgment of the drug use in question. Most of the times, the reasons for drug abuse, include the consumption of amphetamines, barbiturates, benzodiazepines, cocaine, methaqualone, and opium alkaloids. Though these are just some of the drugs most often associated with the term drug abuse, more risky forms of drugs are being invented these days. The past few years have seen stricter punishment for drug abuse and the use of these drugs may lead to criminal penalty.

Apart from this there are also various physical, social, and psychological harms that one can suffer from and these factors are largely dependent on the local jurisdiction. It has been seen that drug abuse can be classified into different categories and the four main ones include public health definitions, mass communication and vernacular usage, medical definitions, and political and criminal justice definitions. The last one is also the basis of legalization of these drugs.

There are many changes that most parents notice in the youth, if they are having drugs, and these include alterations in behavior along with mood swings. Here the youth display emotional swings, which are usually high one day and low the next day and thus they could be aggressive or very quite. Apart from this the youth, who are into drugs, would also start to withdraw and isolate themselves. Such youth would prefer being alone and avoiding communication with their family members and friends.

Youth suffering from drug abuse would be exhibiting very secretive behavior and would usually try and keep things to them, wanting to avoid all kinds of conservations, especially ones related to their behavior changes. Then the youth suffering from these problems also find it difficult to get employment, as most places have some sort of drug abuse test. Even if they are able to find employment, they are not able to stick around for a long time to that particular job and usually get fired.

• Matt Thompson
• 29/04/2009, 12:59 AM
• 0 Comments