Teenage drug abuse exists in the United States and worldwide. Drug abuse is costly to our society as a whole but is especially to our youth. One of the best ways to combat the drug use among teenagers is to begin prevention efforts before young teen start using drugs. In addition, effective programs are required to a combined effort from the schools, the community, and most important from our own family.
During our nation’s earliest history, drug addiction was considered a personal matter. The most common substances of abuse were and still are legal and easily available to citizen of all ages. Medical doctors privately treated cases of addiction. This situation changed after the civil war. Numbers of wounded veterans returned home hooked on the opiates they have received freely. Countless white, middle aged housewives became addicted to various narcotics, too. The invention of the hypodermis needle gave further impetus to drug use. “By the start of the twentieth century, many were raising moral objections to the use of drugs” (Raczek). Teen drug abuse is a common and serious unsolved problem. A drug of abuse is any substance, taken through routes of administration, that alters the mood, the level of perception, or brain functioning. Such drugs include substance range from prescribed medications to alcohol to solvents. Almost all these substances are capable of producing changes in mood and altered stages of learning. ”The diagnostic criteria for abuse require evidence of repeated occurrences within a twelve month period of any social, legal, or interpersonal problems related to the substances” (Masline). Drug abuse can range from smoking marijuana to taking ecstasy to huffing solvents. All of these drugs loss of brain cells. Americans have consistently identified drug use as being among to top problems confronting the nation. Yet many do not recognize the degree to which own children, own schools, and communities are at risk. Over many