Time to Grow Up; Adolescents Aren’t ALWAYS to Blame for Drug Use

Posted on June 27th, 2008 by Janelle -

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Have you ever noticed that we live in a society that is somewhat upside down where more demand is placed upon young people to act more adult-like? In the meantime, adults have become increasingly more like adolescents! According to a recent article by sociologist Mike Males,

American teenagers- in fact, teens throughout the Western world-suffer a massive drug crisis…among their parents. Middle-aged abuse of heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, pharmaceutical drugs, multiple drugs mixed with alcohol now constitutes the worst drug abuse epidemic the United States has ever suffered, inflicting massive damage on families, communities, and the criminal justice system.

Additionally, a recent survey of hospitals nationwide, conducted by the Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN), found that adults who were aged 35 and older comprised 55 percent of emergency cases involving heroin, 59 percent involving cocaine, 55 percent involving illegal use of pharmaceutical drugs, 54 percent involving alcohol mixed with drugs, 38 percent involving methamphetamine and 31 percent involving marijuana.

On the flipside of this, people who were under the age of 21 only made up 6 percent of the cases involving heroin, 7 percent involving cocaine, 12 percent involving alcohol mixed with drugs, 15 percent involving illicit pharmaceutical abuse and 29 percent involving marijuana!

So, just when you think that teenagers are always to blame for drugs and causing problems, perhaps you need to reevaluate the situation and get the facts straight. As adults, we are setting the example (whether we want to or not) for younger people after us to follow. This is why it is so important for us, as adults, to take responsibility for our actions. For those adults who have used or abused drugs, we need to not only educate younger people to be aware of how drug and alcohol addiction affects families, we also need to make sure that we are living examples of this. Actions speak louder than words.