Drug Abuse Among American Teenagers Essay Example For Students

Drug Abuse Among American Teenagers Essay Drug abuse in America is a major problem. Especially among teenagers. Drugs have hurt the lives of nearly 40 percent of all teenagers in America. Either with health problems, DWIs, highway crashes, arrests, impaired school and job performance. These drugs that teenagers use range from Alcohol, LSD, Marijuana, and even Cigarettes. Most of the teenagers that are involved in drug abuse have either, broken families, parents that are drug abusers, a unstable environment where they are constantly moving from place to place, or there parents arent exactly making a lot of money and they are never around because they are trying to make enough money for them to survive. But even to most ordinary teenager can have a drug problem depending on there friends, and relationship with there family. These teenagers turn to drugs because they have no where else to turn. There family members arent ever around, or hardly ever around. Some teens may have there parents around, but they too are involved with drug abuse, giving little or no attention to there children. They may have dropped out of school, or arent meeting the standards set for them to meet, giving them a sense that they arent worth anything. So what do they do? They turn to drugs, thinking that it will take all there problems away. They soon discover new friends with the same outlook on drugs as they have. And now they have a place to turn, a place where they will not be rejected or put down, a place where nothing matters, everyday is a good day. Until they finally just fall apart. The reason most teens get involved in drugs is because they have whats called a low inner and outer containment. Inner containment is what people believe is right and wrong, like your beliefs and morals. These ideas are taught to you at a young age by your parents, and other people in your life that are important to you. If your inner containment is low, meaning that you dont have people that have put ideas into your head about whats right and wrong, then your chance of being a drug abuser increases. Outer containment is like the law, teachers, friends, and family. If you have a lot of people around you that are constantly telling you drugs are bad, you will be less likely to get involved with the drugs because you dont wanna let these people down. But if you dont have very many people around you like teachers say if you dropped out or something. Then you dont have anyone telling you not to do drugs, which means you will probably do them. But if you have a strong social bond (i.e. attachment to parents, school, church, etc.) you will be less likely to become deviant because you dont want to let them down. If a person has a low inner and outer containment, they probably dont feel to great about themselves either, and feel as if they are lost in society. They look for someone to lead them, or look for a way out. When a person doesnt know what to do, they are more prone to get involved with deviance. This theory is known as Anomie. Differential Association ties in with the containment theory also. It means that people will learn to be deviant (i.e. drug abuse) by the examples sent to them by important people in our lives. These important people could be parents, and family. When you grow up you always look to your parents as a role model, and everything they do you want to do. They develop ideas in your head also about whats right and wrong, these ideas are constructed realities. If a teenagers parents are involved with drugs, the teen or child will observe that and think that it is OK for them to do the same thing, because they think it must be normal, after all the parents do it, why cant they? Another example of Differential Association would be with friends. If some of the teenagers friends are involved with drugs, the teen is more likely to get involved with them because of peer pressure from them. They also have a need to fit in with them and they will do anything to gain that acceptance. .u5c1ce12dd1919026b5d101722bb73098 , .u5c1ce12dd1919026b5d101722bb73098 .postImageUrl , .u5c1ce12dd1919026b5d101722bb73098 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u5c1ce12dd1919026b5d101722bb73098 , .u5c1ce12dd1919026b5d101722bb73098:hover , .u5c1ce12dd1919026b5d101722bb73098:visited , .u5c1ce12dd1919026b5d101722bb73098:active { border:0!important; } .u5c1ce12dd1919026b5d101722bb73098 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u5c1ce12dd1919026b5d101722bb73098 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u5c1ce12dd1919026b5d101722bb73098:active , .u5c1ce12dd1919026b5d101722bb73098:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u5c1ce12dd1919026b5d101722bb73098 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u5c1ce12dd1919026b5d101722bb73098 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u5c1ce12dd1919026b5d101722bb73098 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u5c1ce12dd1919026b5d101722bb73098 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u5c1ce12dd1919026b5d101722bb73098:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u5c1ce12dd1919026b5d101722bb73098 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u5c1ce12dd1919026b5d101722bb73098 .u5c1ce12dd1919026b5d101722bb73098-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u5c1ce12dd1919026b5d101722bb73098:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: A Lucky Failure Essay Along with Differential Association comes Differential Reinforcement. Reinforcement is what a teenager would get from his peers. Lets say the teen starts doing drugs like .