There are five distinct factors: early initiation: use of any substance by the age of ten or twelve; school problems: low expectations that school will be a positive experience, low grades, disruptive behavior in school, and truancy; family problems: lack of parental support and guidance; peer influences: relationships with peers who use substances, and an inability to resist their influences; personality: noncomformism [sic], rebellion, or a strong sense of independence; that place youth at risk to abuse drug and alcohol.
More often than not, these factors are allowed to fester, because parents fail to police their children. The truth is, in this twenty-first century, a new phrase is applied to parents who are concerned with their children’s well being, “invasion of privacy.” Parents are deemed inquisitive, more so they might even be accused of bad parenting, if they become too involve in their children’s world. Then there are the parents who are not sure if they are the parents or the children, they think that to get along with their children they must become their friends. Therefore, they give up their parental responsibility. One of the most disadvantage youth face is the lack of a two parents home; usually the mother is the one parent. Regrettable, to survive these mothers must work more than one job, leaving the children to raise themselves.
Unfortunately, drug and alcohol abuse have consequences. According to Roxanne Dryden-Edwards, the physical and psychological effects of drug abuse and addiction vary base on the type of substance involved. Nonetheless, the effects of these drugs can be totally devastating. “Psychologically, intoxication with or withdrawal from a substance can cause everything from euphoria as with alcohol, Ecstasy, or inhalant intoxication to paranoia with marijuana or steroid intoxication.” The effects of these drugs are sometimes fatal. Even though the state implements treatment programs for these teens, the help of the parents is needed to make these programs successful.
There is no great panacea for these at risk youth; cconsequently, it takes the union of schools, churches, and treatment centers to collectively and save our youth from the atrocities of drugs.
Reference
Dryden-Edwards. Consequences of Youth Substance buse. Medecine.com Retrieved from
http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=80650
