Juvenile Drug Abuse Essay

Juvenile Drug Abuse

Today children are subjected to all sorts of situations both good and bad. School systems are much more difficult to deal with nowadays. Most people from older generations still think that school is simple you go to class, go to lunch, bring home your homework and that’s it. This however is not the case anymore. Drugs are making their presence in schools more and more and it is becoming a very big problem. There are more steps that can be taken to help stop present juvenile drug abusers as well as prevent other children from even beginning. For example, programs should be set up for the students, something that will actually interest more students from all “clicks.” There should also be support groups for parents who feel lost as to what they should do to guide their children.
 
Just How Bad is This Problem in the U.S.

In 2007 according to the U.S. Census Bureau there were approximately 41,738 children between the ages of 10 and 19 living in the United States. In the same year according to the same source there were 160,410 drug related arrests in the United States involving children between the ages of 10 and 19. This includes possession charges and dealing charges. Keeping in mind that there are far fewer children than criminal arrests, this means that there are some children who get repeated offenses. These numbers alone should be enough to some people to understand how big of a problem this is becoming. Just as an example of how much this is becoming more of a problem, the same source states that in 1990 the total number of juvenile drug related arrests was 108,025. That is 52,385 fewer than in 2007, and the numbers unfortunately continue to rise. Children are becoming addicted to drugs more and more everyday and if more programs or incentives were created, they would be less likely to become one of these statistics. “Among youth, the use of alcohol and other drugs has been linked to unintentional injuries, physical fights, academic...