Drug and Alcohol Abuse Essay Example

Drug and Alcohol Abuse Essay Example Drug and Alcohol Abuse Paper Drug and Alcohol Abuse Paper Essay Topic: 8th Grade Drug and alcohol abuse is indeed a serious problem among many young people nowadays. This may be proven by statistical information and examples including the ones below. In spite of all the researches conducted on the effects of alcohol on teenagers, as well as, reasons stated why alcohol should be avoided by teenagers, it still cannot be denied that there are countless teenagers engaged in binge drinking (Sound.. n. p. ). Allow me to share with you the following extremely alarming statistical information: Forty percent of teenagers drink to address their being upset; twenty five percent, on the other hand, do so because they are alone; and another twenty five percent drink to manage being bored (Sound.. n. p. ). Furthermore, every teenager spends approximately spends $500 on alcoholic beverages (Sound.. n. p. ). Also, according to researchers, there are eight teenagers who die of alcohol-related accidents each day and that more than 300,000 teenagers will eventually die of alcohol-related occurrences (Sound.. n. p. ). Moreover, sixty percent of teenagers were discovered to be drunk when they were diagnosed to also have a sexually transmitted disease (Sound.. n. p. ). In addition, almost forty percent of teenagers who died because of drowning were drunk at the time of accident (Sound.. n. p. ). Plus, almost thirty two percent of teenagers who were arrested for unlawful behavior were under the influence of alcohol (Sound.. n. p. ). Last but not least, eighty six billion dollars go to waste each year because of consumption of alcohol, health care costs, accident costs, etc (Sound.. n. p. ). Aside from statistical information, there are also a few examples that may prove that alcohol abuse is indeed a problem among the youth nowadays. There were countless alcohol-related risk behaviors among the youth, especially college students and this include: 1) the high percentage of students who rode 1 or more times in a vehicle driven by a drunk driver; 2) the high percentage of students who drove a vehicle 1 or more times under the influence of alcohol; 3) the high percentage of students who had their first drink even before they entered college; 4) the extremely high percentage of students who had five or more drinks of alcohol in a row (National.. n. p. ). The aforementioned only show that alcohol is really a problem among the youth (National.. n. p. ). Meanwhile, the same is true with drug abuse as well. It is a problem as well. Let’s see why as we read and absorb the following examples: First, almost 26 % of high school seniors are engaged in drug abuse according to the Office of National Drug Control Policy (Office.. n. p. ). Second, approximately 15% of 8th graders and almost 23% of 10th graders are into drugs (Office.. n. p. ). Third, in 2001, it has reported that even 12-year old young individuals at least use marijuana once a month (Office.. n. p. ). Fourth, admission rates for treatment of marijuana abuse actually increased in almost all the states except for about nine (Office.. n. p. ). Of the total admissions, approximately, 91 % are young individuals aged 12 to 18 (Office.. n. p. ). Fifth, in 1998, there were more than two thousand six hundred deaths resulting from metamphetamine abuse and there were approximately fifty deaths because of abuse of ketamine (Office.. n. p. ). Sixth, young people who are heavy cigarette users and serious alcohol drinkers are most likely to be involved in drug abuse as well (Office.. n. p. ). Last but not least, fifty seven percent of the youth claim that obtaining marijuana is very easy, in fact they claim that can get that without even leaving their neighborhood (Office.. , n. p. ). References National Institutes on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Alcohol-Related Risk Behaviors Among Youth. 2003. n. a. 09 June 2007 niaaa. nih. gov/Resources/DatabaseResources/QuickFacts/Youth/default. htm Office of National Drug Control Policy. Drug Use Trends. n. d. n. a. 09 June 2007. whitehousedrugpolicy. gov/publications/factsht/druguse/ Sound Vision Foundation, Inc. Statistics on Teens. 2007. n. a. 09 June 2007 soundvision. com/Info/teens/stat. asp