Marijuana: The Most Common Drug Among Teenagers and How it Effects Them

A drug commonly used by youths is Marijuana, and in relation Hashish. Commonly called "pot", or "grass", marijuana is produced from the leaves of Cannabis sativa. Hashish is a concentrated form of cannabis made from unadulterated resin from the female plant. The main active ingredient in both marijuana and hashish is tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), a mild hallucinogen. Marijuana is the most common drug used amongst teenagers. (Juvenile Delinquency, The Core, "Second Edition"), (Larry J. Siegel, Brandon C. Welsh, "2005", P. 233/Chapter 10). Smoking large amounts of pot, or has can cause distortion's in auditory and visual perception, even hallucinatory effects. Small doses produce an early excitement ("high") that gives way to drowsiness. The use of pot is also related to decreased activity, overestimation of time and space, and an increase in food consumption. When a user is alone, marijuana produces a dreamy state. In a group user's become frivolous and lose perspective. Marijuana is not physically addicting, but its long-term effects have been the subject of much debate. During the 1970's, it was documented that smoking pot caused a variety of physical and mental problems, including brain damage and mental illness. (P. 233). Although the dangers of pot and have been overstated, the use of these drugs does present some health risks, including an increased risk of lung cancer, chronic bronchitis, and other diseases. Prospective parents should avoid smoking marijuana because it lowers sperm counts in males; female's experience disrupted ovulation and a greater chance of miscarriage. Some reasons that youths make take drugs are peer pressure and emotional problems.

Youths take drugs due to peer pressure because they want to fit in with their friends. Youths in inner-city areas where people often feel alienated often run into people who use drugs, who in turn teach them that drugs provide an answer to their feelings of inadequacy and stress. (P. 240). Youths may even join with peers to learn the techniques of dug use; their friendships with other drug-dependant youth's give them social support for their habit. Research shows that drug users increase the probability of drug use. Adolescents with substance abuse problems also seek out friend's who engage in the same/similar behavior. In connection substance abusers also associate drug abusers leads to increase levels of drug abuse. Shared feelings and a sense of intimacy lead youths to become enmeshed in what has been described as the "drug-use subculture". (P. 241).

Youths use drugs when dealing with emotional problems because drugs help them control, or express unconscious needs. (P. 242). Some psychoanalyst suggests that adolescents who internalize their problems may use drugs to reduce their feelings of insecurity. Some people may use drugs as an escape from real, or imagined feelings of mediocrity. Some youths that externalize their problems and blame other's for their failures, or what they perceive as failure's, are likely to be involved in antisocial behaviors, or substance abuse. Research has been done to support these statements. Drug users are also believed to exhibit psychopathic, or sociopathic behavior attributes, forming what is known as "addiction prone personality". Drinking alcohol may reflect the need for a teen to remain dependant upon an overprotective mother figure, or an effort to reduce the emotional turmoil of adolescence. Research that has been done on the cognitive attributes of narcotics abusers reveals the company of a significant degree of pathology. Personality testing reveals that a significant percentage of participants suffer from psychotic disorder's. Studies have found that addicts suffer from personality disorder's characterized by a weak ego, low frustration tolerance, as well as fantasies of omnipotence. A percentage of up to half of all drug abuser's may also be diagnosed with anti-social personality disorder. Anti-Personality Disorder (ASPD) can be defined as a persuasive pattern of disregard for the right's of other people.

A drug control strategy that is being enforced in order to try and control drug abuse are Education Strategies. Education Strategies begin in kindergarten and extend through twelfth grade. More than 80% of public school districts include these components: 1) Teaching students about the causes and effects of alcohol, drug and tobacco use, 2) Teaching students to resist peer pressure, 3) Refer students for counseling and treatment. Education programs such as "Project Alert", based in middle schools in California and Oregon, appear to be successful in training youths to avoid illegal drugs and to resist peer pressure to use cigarettes and alcohol. The most widely used drug prevention program is "Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.). (P. 252)

D.A.R.E is an elementary school course designed to give students the skills that they need to resist peer pressure to experiment with tobacco, drugs, as well as alcohol. This program employs uniformed police officer's to carry out the anti-drug message to children before they enter junior high school. The program focuses on five major areas: 1) Providing accurate information about tobacco, alcohol, and drugs, 2) Teaching students techniques to resist peer pressure. The third aspect would be teaching students to respect the law and law enforcer's. The fourth element is to give students ideas for alternatives to drugs. The final element is to build the self-esteem of students. The dare program is based on the concept that the young students need specific analytical and social skills to resist peer pressure, and to say not to drugs. Instructors work with children to raise their self-esteem. Instructor's in addition provide students with decision-making tools and help them identify positive alternatives to substance abuse. The D.A.R.E. program approach has been adopted so quickly since it's founding in 1983, that it is now taught in almost 80 5 of school district's nationwide, and in fifty-four other countries. In the year 2002 alone, twenty-six million children in the U.S and ten million children in other countries participated in the program. More than 40% of all school districts incorporate assistance form local law enforcement agencies in their drug prevention programming. New community policing strategies often incorporate the D.A.R.E program into their efforts to provide services to localized neighborhoods at grassroots levels.

To meet criticism head on in regards to the effectiveness of the program, D.A.R.E began testing a new curriculum in 2001. The new program is aimed at older students and relies more on having them question their assumptions on drug use than on listening to lectures on the subject. The new program will work largely on changing social norms, teaching students to question whether they really have to use drugs to fit in with their peers. Emphasis will shift from fifth-grade students to those in the seventh grade, as well as a booster program that will be added in the ninth grade, at which time kids are more likely to experiment with drugs. Police officer's will now serve more as a coach than a lecturer, encouraging students to challenge the social norm of drugs in discussion groups. Students will now do more role playing in an effort to learn decision-making skills. There will also be an emphasis on the role of media and advertising in shaping behavior. The new curriculum is undergoing tests in 80 schools and 176 middle schools. Half of the 176 schools will continue to use their curriculum that they currently use, the other half will use the improved D.A.R.E program. The schools will use the improved D.A.R.E program in order to evaluate it.

References:
Larry J. Siegel, Brandon C. Welsh, Juvenile Delinquency, The Core, "Second Edition", 2005