Effects Of Substance Abuse

Many people often become addicted to substances. When someone becomes addicted to a substance it cause disruptions in there life, it causes problems with there relationship(s), and it effects there health. People often start off by using alcohol or drugs as a “pick me up” and it makes the user feel “cool” (“Substance Abuse and”). Kids don’t take the time to think what using the substances is doing to there body and there brain. As a kid your brain is still developing and it is much easier to become addicted. When your abusing the drugs at such a young age it can cause long term effects(“Alcohol”). For some people it is harder to become addicted, they can try it one time and then never pick it up again, but as for others they can become hooked …show more content…
Use becomes abuse when the drugs or alcohol begin to take control over one’s life. For many substance abusers, this is the tipping point: seeking and using, increasing amounts of drugs, despite the tremendous problems it causes for themselves and their families (“Substance Abuse and”). Families influence their members, particularly children, in multiple ways in their choices about smoking, drinking, and using other drugs. Children of parents who abused alcohol and other drugs were at increased risk of accidents, injuries and academic failure. Such children were more likely to suffer conduct disorders, depression or anxiety— conditions that increased the risk children will smoke, drink and use other drugs (“Family”). At least half of the individuals arrested for major crimes including homicide, theft, and assault were under the influence of illicit drugs around the time of their arrest. At least two-thirds of patients in drug abuse treatment centers say there were physically or sexually abuse as children (“Magnitude”). The white paper also found that alcohol and drug-abusing parents were three times likelier to abuse their children and four times likelier to neglect them then parents who did not abuse these substances. Parents who used tobacco or illegal drugs or abused alcohol put half the nations children- more than 35 million of them at greater risk of substance abuse and other physical and mental …show more content…
In todays teenage population over ninety percent have used alcohol. Over fifty percent have used marijuana, seventeen percent admit to trying cocaine and twelve and a half percent have used some form of hallucinogen (“Facts”). Other statistics from the survey include that nearly twenty-four percent of americans over eighteen years of age have engaged in binge drinking in the past year, and more than twenty percent of americans have smoked cigarettes in the past month. Other research reveals facts like about twenty-one millions people over eighteen years of age in the United States have had some form of substance use disorder in the past year. The 2012 National Household survey on drug abuse estimated that more than thirteen percent of adults in the United States have used illicit drugs in the past year (“Substance Abuse: get”). The average age of first experimentation with drugs is thirteen, and for alcohol it is even younger. Drug use has been classified as a major problem for kids as nearly as fourth grade by the students themselves (“Facts”). The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that drugs are used by approximately ten to twenty-two percent of drivers involved in crashes, often in combination with alcohol. Thirty-one percent of Americas homeless suffer from drug abuse or alcoholism. As many as sixty percent of adults in Federal prisons are there for drug-related crimes