Teenage drug abuse is rife in South Africa and the rest of the world. Teens are using drugs recreationally and have a false sense of immunity. As much as parents try to monitor and control their teens, the teens seem to always be one step ahead of them. These drugs they receive in rave clubs and shopping malls and don’t seem to think anything of it. Kids as young as 12 years old are experimenting with drugs such as ecstasy, marijuana and LSD. The drugs may not appear to be a problem and the teens may not seem to be harming anyone but alcohol and drug abuse has been identified as the leading cause of other global issues. When people are high on a substance they lose all sense of themselves.
Behaviours such:
• Their reasoning diminishes,
• Their judgement is impaired and
• They become reckless and careless
Some of the global issues that have been traced back to teenage drug abuse include
• The growing rate of teenage pregnancies. When the teens are high they engage in high risk sexual behaviours.
• Teenage prostitution. Teens who want to support their drug habit find themselves in the sex trade industry.
• High school and school dropout rate. These drug addicted teens find it difficult to finish their studies let alone further them.
• The growing rate in child runaways. Kids who have a drug habbit are prone to being runaways who are never home.
• Rape and kidnapping. These kids live lives that are dangerous and find themselves vulnerable to very dangerous situations due to drugs.
• Murder/Suicide rate. Some of these teens commit suicide because they don’t know how to cope and tragically some become murder victims due to their lifestyles.
• The hiv/AIDS rate. Drug using teens are at high risk to contracting sexually transmitted diseases like aids.
Parents have to look out for their teenagers, there is no such a thing as using ‘recreationally’. That is how it starts but soon it becomes a drug addiction.