There is a strong connection between drug and
alcohol abuse and violence. Drugs cause teens to hurt themselves in many ways.
Teens who take drugs and become addicted might hurt others if they want to
get their drugs bad enough. Drugs also hurt the brain's neurotransmitters,
which are chemical messages in the brain that control brain functions. For
example, the neurotransmitter serotonin can cause aggressive or violent feelings
when low. Alcohol affects the brain as a depressant and also lowers a person's
inhibitions. Lowered inhibitions can led a person to be more violent when
angry. Your reflexes also are affected when alcohol is taken, they slow down
maybe resulting in an injury while trying to catch yourself when falling.
Those are some ways drug and alcohol abuse are related to violence.
Abuse is when you take drugs in a way or amount
it is not meant to be taken in. Abuse can lead to addiction. When your body
becomes used to a drug it can't function without it, this is called addiction.
With addiction comes a loss of control because drugs affect decision making
and act directly on the brain stem and limbic system. This is very important
because these parts of the brain control actions like eating, sleeping, and
even breathing. Some drugs can kill with only one dose.
Drug abuse is caused by peer pressure, friends, stress, and fitting in. Some teens take drugs to be like their famous idol who takes drugs. Sometimes teens feel hopeless because they are so miserable with their family or school life and taking drugs or alcohol seems like a solution at first.
Unfortunately, too many teens are taking this route to feel better:
In 2003, 30.3% of 8th graders admitted to using drugs, 44.4% of 10th graders, and 52.8% of 12th graders
underage drinking costs the USA enough money to get each student a new state of the art computer (about $58 billion annually)
Percentage of high school seniors who say they could get drugs easily - crack 39.2%, Cocaine 47.8%
