Adolescence is a time for new things. This is a critical period when teens go out of their comfort zones and venture in today’s otherwise perilous environment. Experimentation with drugs during this stage is common. Unfortunately, teenagers often don’t see the link between their actions today and the consequences tomorrow. They also have a tendency to feel indestructible and immune to the problems others experience.

Using alcohol and tobacco at a young age increases the risk of using other drugs later. Some teens will experiment and stop, or continue to use occasionally, without significant problems. Others will develop dependency or addiction, often moving on to more dangerous drugs and causing significant harm to themselves and possibly to others. Unfortunately, it is quite difficult to know which teens will experiment and stop and which will develop to serious problems.

Substance abuse is caused by a number of individual, family, and social factors rather than by any one cause. Individual risk factors include any history of physical or sexual victimization, learning or emotional problems, difficulty managing impulses, emotional instability, thrill-seeking behaviors, and perceiving the risk of using drugs to be low. Family risk factors include low parent supervision or communication, family conflicts, inconsistent or severe parental discipline , and family history of alcohol or drug abuse. In terms of social causes, peer pressure is the single, most common cause of substance abuse among teens. This is followed by promotion by media of substances such as alcohol, cigarettes and drugs. Consequently, teens have easy access to such substances.

Drug abuse is associated with a variety of negative consequences, including increased risk of drug use later in life, school failure, and poor judgment which may put teens at risk for accidents, violence, unplanned and unsafe sex, and suicide. As such, it is imperative that immediate and drastic steps be done to address this problem for today’s youth are the hopes of tomorrow.