Does the youth of today have a problem with drug abuse? Looking at some statistics from the United States Department of Justice/Bureau of Justice Statistics, in the year 2002, almost 700,000 teenagers ended up in the emergency room of their local hospitals due to the fact that they were using a controlled substance. There is a problem and a big one.
A survey in 2004 of senior high schools students uncovered some very troubling statistics. When asked how many of the seniors had used alcohol within the last 12 months, 70.6% of the students admitted to it, and when asked how many has used alcohol within the last 30 days 48% said they had. The use of other chemical substances used within the last 12 months is also alarming: Marijuana 34%, Stimulants 10%, Opiates 9.5%, Tranquilizers 7.3%, Cocaine 5.3% and Inhalants 4.2%. Although research shows that usage among these students has been at a constant decline, Inhalants are on a steady rise.
Are the seniors enough information about the harmful effects of drugs and alcohol to their bodies? With a growing concern of illegal drug use among American’s the United States Government, along with many different entities have been putting the word out in all different kinds of forms to education tomorrow’s leaders about the harm involved in drug and alcohol use. You can see it everywhere, schools, the internet, on billboards and being advertised constantly on television. So with all the fan-fare of the wealth of knowledge are school kids actually catching on to what is being said? Here are a few more statistics from the same study:
When asked if they thought people would be harming themselves if they were to use drugs the following disturbing facts were uncovered:
In 1987, 87% of seniors thought that people were hurting themselves by using marijuana as opposed to 54.6% in 2004. 88.5% of the students in 1987 thought people using cocaine would risk harm as opposed to 82.2% in 2004. The same decline is noticed when, in 1987, 83.8% thought using LSD would be harmful unlike the 70.2% in 2004. Last but not least, in 1987, 88.7% of senior high school students thought using heroin was risky but in 2004 only 86.8% felt it would be harmful to them. With all the ad campaigns and education available to our high school students, you would think that these numbers would decrease. Maybe it is just a sign of rebellion, because the same census states that when seniors turn 25 years of age, the amount of usage among them severely drops to approximately 4%.
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