Key Illegal Drug In Use Among Teens example essay topic

In America many horrible things have happened. It amazes me to hear of the things that occur to people of the same age as me. I feel that the given statistics are astonishing, shocking, and saddening. Aside from those feelings though, I do feel that these events are to some degree preventable.

I will describe exactly what I have observed in detail, and how I feel these types of issues should be delt with on a national scale. Over the past 25 years the rate of teen suicide has increased 300%. Suicide is a result of untreated depression. People with depression should deal with there problem immediately, because the longer depression is left untouched, the higher risk that person has for committing suicide. Personally, I could not imagine deliberately killing myself because I felt bad, and cannot actually relate to this problem from my own experiences. I do know that if anyone knows of a person that has a plan to commit suicide, that they should take action to prevent a possible death.

If you know of someone who has a plan to do this and they have told you, this is there way of asking you to stop them (whether it is conscious or unconscious). The more people that person has supporting them, the better chance they have of surviving. In America 3,600 babies are born to unwed teens a day. My opinion is that it is obviously bad financially, and bad for the babies to be born to young teens because the babies will not receive the right amount of attention. To prevent that problem these young people need to stop having babies. There are pretty much two choices: use birth control, or for the people who don't believe in that, just don't have sex.

Now, I would hope that no one around is dumb enough to think that all these teens are going to stop having sex. There are many forms of birth control ranging from using condoms to taking the pill. So remember, don't be a fool, wrap your tool. In America 22,000 teens are suspended a day.

I personally thing that it is dumb if you get suspended because your probably doing something that you could just do when your not at school. I have done a few things during school that I just should have waited until school was over. I got in a little trouble with the school, but nothing too bad. It just went to show me that certain things shouldn't be done at school. Also, I came across some interesting research that has shown that teens that eat frequent family dinners are less likely than other teens to get into fights or be suspended from school, and they are also at lower risk for thoughts of suicide. Frequent family dining is also associated with doing well in school and developing healthy eating habits.

This idea seemed a bit strange to me but if it works for some people, then good for them. I feel that this may have some impact, but not a huge impact on me. The vast majorities of teenagers don't take drugs or drink because they are clinically depressed, suicidal, or lacking in self-esteem. They do it because it gives them pleasure, like drinking coffee, smoking cigarettes, and drinking liquor. "Just say no" is absurd advice to give teenagers when it comes to drugs and alcohol.

Also, it is dumb to think that taking drugs or drinking alcohol has anything to do with being "good" or "bad" kids. It's got everything to do with the allure of experimenting with "forbidden substances" that promise pleasure, status, and acceptance. Parents can prohibit teenagers from drinking or taking drugs but that does not necessarily mean they can prevent it. A 1998 CASA survey found that teens who sit down to dinner with their families twice a week or less are four times more likely to smoke cigarettes, three times more likely to smoke marijuana and nearly twice as likely to drink as those who ate dinner with their parents six or seven times a week.

Although this technique may prevent the overall use of drugs, a parent's biggest concerns should be the prevention of chronic use and addiction of such drugs. Also excluding alcohol, although it is illegal for teens, Marijuana is the key illegal drug in use among teens today. And this proves that those statistics are a bit misleading; as many illegal drugs have much harder short and especially long-term effects. Most of those teens that use marijuana don't move on to harder drugs anyways, and it's possible that that marijuana may be legal in the future to those teens of ages 18 or 19. Parents should not focus on controlling the use of drugs, but the abuse of such substances.