Drug Abuse Among American Teenagers Essay - 7972 Words

Drug Abuse Among American Teenagers Drug abuse in America is a major problem. Especially among teenagers. Drugs have hurt the lives of nearly 40 percent of all teenagers in America. Either with health problems, DWIs, highway crashes, arrests, impaired school and job performance. These drugs that teenagers use range from Alcohol, LSD, Marijuana, and even Cigarettes. Most of the teenagers that are involved in drug abuse have either, broken families, parents that are drug abusers, a unstable environment where they are constantly moving from place to place, or there parents arent exactly making a lot of money and they are never around because they are trying to make enough money for them to survive. But even to most ordinary teenager can†¦show more content†¦If your inner containment is low, meaning that you dont have people that have put ideas into your head about whats right and wrong, then your chance of being a drug abuser increases. Outer containment is like the law, teachers, friends, and family. If you have a lot of people around you that are constantly telling you drugs are bad, you will be less likely to get involved with the drugs because you dont wanna let these people down. But if you dont have very many people around you like teachers say if you dropped out or something. Then you dont have anyone telling you not to do drugs, which means you will probably do them. But if you have a strong social bond (i.e. attachment to parents, school, church, etc.) you will be less likely to become deviant because you dont want to let them down. If a person has a low inner and outer containment, they probably dont feel to great about themselves either, and feel as if they are lost in society. They look for someone to lead them, or look for a way out. When a person doesnt know what to do, they are more prone to get involved with deviance. This theory is known as Anomie. Differential Association ties in with the containment theory also. It means that people will learn to be deviant (i.e. drug abuse) by the examples sent to them by important people in our lives. These important people could be parents, and family. When you grow up you always look to your parentsShow MoreRelatedJuveniles and Drug Abuse946 Words   |  4 PagesJuveniles and Drug Abuse America Abstract A drug is a substance that modifies one or more of the bodys functions when it is consumed. Therefore, many common foods qualify as drugs. According to this definition, some of our most cherished beverages such as tea, coffee, and cola are drugs. However this paper focuses on drugs that are abused by teenagers. 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