The unprecedented use of alcohol by teens has raised many concerns in the western countries especially USA and European Countries. Study released on Tuesday stating use of Alcohol and marijuana among teens is on the rise ending a decade-long decline.
“I’m a little worried that we may be seeing the leading edge of a trend here,” said Sean Clarkin, director of strategy at The Partnership for a Drug-Free America, which was releasing the study. “Historically, you do see the increase in recreational drugs before you see increases in some of the harder drugs.”
The annual survey found the number of teens in grades 9 through 12 who reported drinking alcohol in the last month rose 11 percent last year, with 39 percent — about 6.5 million teens — reporting alcohol use. That’s up from 35 percent, or about 5.8 million teens, in 2008.
For pot, 25 percent of teens reported smoking marijuana in the last month, up from 19 percent.
A survey was conducted and it revealed that until last year, those measures for pot and alcohol use had been on a steady decline since 1998, when use hovered around 50 percent of teens for alcohol and 27 percent for pot.
The study also found use of the party drug Ecstasy on the rise. Six percent of teens surveyed said they used Ecstasy in the past month, compared with 4 percent in 2008.
Meanwhile, a separate study in Australia found a possible link between long-term marijuana use and increased risk of hallucinations, delusions and other psychoses among young people.
According to the findings, published Monday in the journal Archives of General Psychiatry, those who reported smoking marijuana for six or more years were twice as likely to develop a psychosis, such as schizophrenia, and four times as likely to get high scores in clinical tests of delusion.
If parents suspect their teen is using, they need to act quickly, Clarkin said. Monitor them more closely, talk with them about drugs, set rules and consult outside help, like a counselor, doctor, clergy or other resource, he said.
The researchers asked teens how they felt about doing drugs or friends who did them. The study found a higher percentage of teens than in the previous year agreed that being high feels good; more teens reported having friends who usually get high at parties; and fewer teens said they wouldn’t want to hang around kids who smoked pot.
Stacy Laskin, now 21 and a senior in college, said marijuana was everywhere during her high school years. Laskin said she tried pot and drank alcohol in high school, but didn’t make it a habit like other kids she knew.
“The behavior I saw people go through — and to see how far people can fall — really turned me away more than anything else,” Laskin said in an interview with The Associated Press.
Her close friend from high school died in 2008 from a heroin overdose. Laskin, a psychology major at Salisbury University in Maryland, was so torn by her friend Jeremy’s death that she decided to help others and is working on her second internship at a drug treatment center.
“Just seeing the negative impact made me want to get involved,” she said.
Many people are inveterate to Alcohol with the interest of modest society but it changes the chart of normality and leading to many criminal issues like murder in the drunken state, rape, incest, robbery, abuse etc ultimately draws a border line to relinquish use of alcohol.
“Just seeing the negative impact made me want to get involved,” she said.
Many people are inveterate Alcoholics with the interest of modest society but it changes the chart of normality and leading to many criminal issues like murder in the drunken state, rape, incest, robbery, abuse etc ultimately draws a border line to relinquish use of alcohol.