kids in the butt :: essays research papers

Substance Use and scream Among Children and Teenagers During the past several years, there has been a renewed national reverence about do drugs ab riding habit, culminating in the current "war on drugs." In this review, we emphasize that even though child or teenage drug use is an individual behavior, it is embedded in a sociocultural consideration that strongly determines its character and manifestations. Our focus is on psychoactive middles both legitimate (cig bettes and alcohol) and il lawful (e.g., cannabis and cocaine). We feel that it is critical to draw a musical note between use and abuse of drugs and to do so from a two-dimensional perspective that includes aspects of the stimulus (drug), organism (individual), response, and consequences. Our selective review of substance use and abuse among children and adolescents covers epidemiology (patterns and extent of drug use), etiology (what generates substance use), prevention (how to restrict drug use), treatment (interventions with drug users), and consequences (effects and outcomes of youthful drug use). In this truncate review, we selectively examine the recent literature and current status of substance use and abuse among children and adolescents. Our focus is on psychoactive substances both licit and illicit, including cig arttes, alcohol, cannabis, cocaine, and other drugs. We examine the use and abuse of substances by children and teenagers from five perspectives epidemiology, etiology, prevention, treatment, and consequences (see Rogers, 1987 , for supererogatory overviews and references). The United States is a drug culture. Drugs are used commonly and tolerably to wake up in the morning (coffee or tea), get through and through the stresses of the day (cigarettes), and relax in the evening (alcohol). The Marlboro Man and the Virginia Slims woman are widely seen models, and licit drugs are pushed to remedy all of the ills one may facestress, headaches, depression, physical illne ss, and so on. Children face a monumental trade union movement of sorting out the many images and messages regarding both licit and illicit drugs. Adolescents are quite adept at spotting hypocrisy and may redeem difficulty understanding a policy of "saying no to drugs" when suggested by a society that clearly says "yes" to the smorgasbord of drugs that are legal as well as the range of illicit drugs that are widely operable and used. A few words are in order on the distinction between use and abuse of drugs. This differentiation is critical to such(prenominal) diverse topics as societal justification for limiting access to drugs (whether By legal or other means) or for considering psychological intervention.