This is an astounding 0.3 percent of the national population. (NIDA, 2008). Of the 259,000 who used methamphetamine for the first time in 2006, the mean age at first use was 22.2 years, which is up considerably from the mean age of 18.6 in 2005. From 2005 to 2006, lifetime methamphetamine abuse increased among those 26 and older, particularly among those 26-34 years of age. (NIDA, 2008).
And compared with nondrinkers, a greater proportion of frequent binge drinkers (nearly 1 million high school students nationwide) engaged in other risky behaviors in the past 30 days (Grunbaum et al., 2004), including carrying a gun, using marijuana, using cocaine, and having sex with six or more partners. In addition, these youth were more likely than abstainers to earn grades that are mostly D’s or F’s in school (15 percent vs. 5 percent), or be injured in a suicide attempt (Biglan et al. 2004). Underage drinking can result in a range of short-term and long-term consequences, such as academic problems, social problems, physical problems such as hangovers, unwanted, unintended, and unprotected sexual activity, sexual assault, memory problems, increased risk for suicide and homicide, alcohol related car crashes and other unintentional injuries, death from alcohol poisoning, and alterations in brain development that may have consequences reaching far beyond adolescence (Barrouillet, 2002). Alcohol is by far the leading contributor to injury death, the main cause of death for people under the age of 21 (NHTSA, 2003).
We all know that kids go around our back to parties and have a few drinks with friends but not many parents will stop this. This is not good, this is what is encouraging them to be worse later on. Firstly they are testing there boundaries, which if there are none, will make them believe they can do anything and get away with it, these habits would carry on into their later years when it comes to driving and they will become reckless because they believe that they can get away with anything. Secondly we shouldn’t be encouraging underage drinking because it will inflict an addiction onto our children that is close to impossible to shake off, if the kids are getting drunk every weekend at the age of 15 or 16 imagine what would happen to those same kids at 19 or 20? Melbourne's Murdoch Children's Research institute has done a study where 1520 teenagers drinking habits have been tracked for 10 years.
Heroin Addiction (Current Events) Researchers estimate that heroin use has increased in the U.S. by nearly 60% over the past ten years. Law enforcement officials believe the spike in heroin use is driven by addicts not being able to afford more expensive prescription pain killers. “They’re hooked on prescription drugs but when the prescription runs out, they switch to $5 and $10 bags of heroin,” Christopher Goldrick of the Rockland Narcotics Task Force told U.S.A. Today According to the most recent figures from the CDC, drug overdose claimed more lives than any other injury in 2010, with 60% of those deaths related to pharmaceutical drugs. The CDC also reports that 75% of prescription drug overdose deaths involve painkillers such as
16 Year Old Thief The United States spends billions of dollars preventing drug use, treating addicts and fighting drug related crimes. Drug use causes multiple problems in many communities. Problems stemming from drug abuse can lead to burglaries, robberies, murders and other illegal activities in the United States. According to Drug War Facts for 2008 an estimated 117,325,000 Americas aged 12 or over (47% of the U.S. population aged 12 and over) report having used illicit drug at least once in their lifetime. More than half of America’s youth are drug users.
Ending prohibition on marijuana could save tax dollars and win ‘the war on drug”. (norml, 2013) 1. Enforcing marijuana prohibition costs taxpayers $10 billion annually and results in the arrest of more than 829,000 individuals per year. (norml, 2013) 2. Nearly 25 million Americans have smoked marijuana in the past year, and more than 14 million do so regularly despite harsh laws against its use.
Moreover, violent deaths are becoming a larger proportion of all youth mortality. Suicides and homicides accounted for less than 8 percent of all youth deaths; two decades later they accounted for 20 percent. While many recent studies have noted the increasing role of drugs, crime,
Statistics The Century Council has been a leader in the fight against underage drinking for nearly two decades. While rates have declined, alcohol consumption among youth under the legal drinking age remains at an alarming level. More than 10 million youths, ages 12 to 20, in this country report they have consumed alcohol in the past 30 days. The rate of current alcohol consumption increases with increasing age according to the 2010 National Survey on Drug Use and Health from 2% at age 12 to 21% at age 16, and 56% at age 20. The Century Council works with all segments of the community, including parents, youth, law enforcement, judges, educators, public officials, government agencies, and advocacy groups to provide valuable information and develop comprehensive programs to delay first consumption of alcohol, prevent underage drinking, and reduce the access to alcohol by minors.
Prescription drugs has had an increase over the past couple of years, and is a type of drug that is abused more that the other drugs combined and is responsible for a large percentage of deaths. According to "Drug Free World " (2013), Prescription drug abuse causes the largest percentage of deaths from drug overdosing. Of the 22,400 drug overdose deaths in the US in 2005, opioid painkillers were the most commonly found drug, accounting for 38.2% of these deaths (Drug Free World, 2013). Prescription drugs are highly addictive and affect the consumer on all levels from emotional, physical, financial, and
Underage Drinking Underage drinking mostly starts at the early ages of 11 to 14 years old. This has become one of the largest discussed issues and major problems in America because of the increase of deaths every year. According to the department of health and human services underage drinking has caused problems such as: public health and safety problems, potential brain damage issues, alcohol disorders, violence, suicides, sexual assault, rape and many car accidents. Underage drinking has become a very huge problem for teenagers where life and health are at great risk. In my point of view as sophomores in high school and as a member of the small community I live in I think that there should be other ways and more classes on underage drinking.