Knowledge and indeed, widespread knowledge, surrounding habits and hobbies which were once celebrated, such as smoking cigarettes for example, is finally so much more advanced that there’s now a wealth of information warning every one of the associated dangers.
However, whether you like it or not, and whether you’re aware, or indeed not aware, drug use is still a common occurrence amongst teenagers and young adults, but hopefully, at least, you’re already aware of the dangers.
Whether you have children yourself or not, you should absolutely continue reading to learn of the supreme importance of educating teenagers on the dangers of drug use.
Key Risk Factors
As you might expect, the age group of people who are at the highest risk of becoming addicted to drugs and therefore, logically should be the kinds of people that education around drugs should be targeted at, are teenagers and young people.
Naturally, everyone is different, but that being said, there does tend to be some clear trends when it comes to high risk factors which could, but don’t always, lead to drug addiction, which include:
- Cyberbullying
- Schools lacking discipline
- Ignorance to the dangers of drugs
- Permissive and/or uninvolved parenting
- Community &peer pressure
How Society Can Help
Even if you’re the parent of one or more teenagers and you have diligently reinforced, time and time again, the supreme dangers of using drugs (even for a one-time experiment), as a society, there’s still much work to be done.
Comprehensive and far-reaching preventative policies and programs are a hugely positive influential tool, as are business owner and managers who initiate after-hours drug testing on their employees – click here to find out more.
In addition, it has been conclusively proven that some people, depending entirely on how their brain is organized, even if they come from a middle-class, educated background, may still have a predilection for drug use and this also needs to be addressed.
Teenagers & Drugs: The Dangers
An exceedingly common health condition amongst teenagers and young people is the development, in various stages, of MDD (Major Depressive Disorder), with the clear and undeniable connection between depression and drug use being as prominent now than ever before.
Keep an eye out for behavioral changes, which may or may not indicate that your teenager is using drugs, such as locking their bedroom doors much more frequently, a change in the relationship between them and you, secretive and shifty behavior, high energy periods, lethargy, and a disinterest in previously cherished hobbies.
Physically speaking, the main signs which could indicate that a teenager or young adult has turned to drug use include vomiting, frequent illnesses, a runny nose, a nosebleed, more bruises on their skin, and rapid or slurred speech patterns.
Even if you’re not a parent yourself, everybody has a moral obligation to help teenagers navigate through that, particularly difficult, time in their life without feeling as if they have to turn to drugs.
