Troubled Teens Resources

Articles about teen age drug abuse focus a great deal on meth, heroin, and club drugs. And rightfully so given the prevalence of their use amongst teens. But marijuana is still the most common drug used by teens, so much so that it is close to becoming normalized due to the casual attitudes towards it, emanating from both teens and many parents. But that is not how it is being viewed by the juvenile courts.

One day, a Texas judge was curious if all of the teens standing before him in court would test positive for drugs. He wasn’t expecting that every single one of them would. Wondering if there is a correlation between pot use and truancy, the judge intends to implement a good deal more drug testing in order to find out.

“Ball ordered the students and their parents to report to the Alcohol and Drug Awareness Council..where… counselors will perform interviews to try to identify the problem, and based on the information gathered, will decide whether education or a referral to a level of care is appropriate. No drug charges were filed against the students who tested positive in truancy court because they were not in possession of drugs at the time, Ball said.

Marijuana may seem like an “old school” drug, but its popularity is still going strong among today’s youth…

More than 80 percent of local seniors say the drug is “easy to get”…the average age of first use among Texas students is 13.5 years old, according to the Texans Standing Tall Report Card, meaning most students are in middle school when they first try the drug.”

(source)

If parents don’t think that their teens are using drugs and alcohol they might what to read up on the studies that have been done, and take a good hard look at the teen sitting across the dinner table from them tonight. Teen age drug abuse has unfortunately become a norm instead of an isolated phenomena.

“In a survey taken in 1995, two-thirds of all of the 12th grade students interviewed said that they felt that they had to choose whether or not to use drugs before they graduated from high school. In studies done in 1998 and 1999, 56 percent of 12 to 17 year old reported that marijuana was easy to get and 72 percent of this group reported that alcohol was very easy to obtain. By the time they are 17 years old, 56 percent of adolescents state that they know a drug dealer.

Among the substances abused are: alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, cocaine, opiates, “club drugs” (ecstasy, etc.). stimulants, hallucinogens, inhalants, prescription drugs, and steroids.

Drug and substance abuse among teenagers, is substantial. Among youth age 12 to 17, about 1.1 million meet the diagnostic criteria for dependence on drugs, and about 1 million are treated for alcohol dependency.”

(source)

KD