Increasing the involvement of families will decrease the risk of drugs and alcohol

Jessica Harding

Teacher: Lori Steadman

Writing 150

Rough Draft Due March 14, 2012

Alcohol and Cannabis use has become an increasingly common problem in our society today.  Many adolescents are highly exposed to these risk factors, and their families will not even know about it.  The majority of American families will not hear of the all too frequent offers that these teenagers have to try to use drugs or alcohol.  Increasing the relationship between parental figures and children will help children to stay out of potentially harmful situations and tell their parents when they are offered alcohol or drugs.  Increasing the family involvement with adolescents will decrease the risk of using Cannabis, alcohol, and other illegal drugs among the youth of America.  

There are many reasons that youth feel the need to use drugs.  Some of the reasons that people are influenced to do these things are because they don’t have a relationship with their parents that involves “family supervision, family communication, feelings of affection from the mother and a nonconflicting [sic] parent-child relationship, sibling nonuse of drugs, family loyalty, and family caring (word 4).”  All of these factors will affect how the adolescent feels about their parents and will increase their willingness to tell them what is happening in their lives.  Because they are more involved with their parents, the teenagers would be less likely to use alcohol or drugs.

Many times adolescents will be encouraged by family members not to do things that are detrimental to their health.  “Family attachment or strong connections between a young person and his/her family have significant protective influences against adolescent deviant behaviors: delinquency, alcohol, cigarette, marijuana, and illicit drug use (word 4).”  When adolescents are attached to their family, they more readily realize the effect that it will have on their relationship and also show them how using drugs or alcohol early on in life is bad for their health. 

Many times when the family is not stable, the child will resort to drug use as a way of escaping reality.  “A study on early adolescent children of substance abusers found that frequent family disruptions or family instability - especially the lack of a consistent parent figure - contributed to the risk of delinquent behavior, including drug use (word 4).”  Parents are the main example of what children should do.  When children do not have a consistent parental figure, they do not have that example to look up to.    This makes it difficult for the child to make good decisions because they do not have a consistent role model.

Many times when people use drugs or alcohol, it begins when they are adolescents.  Most teenagers want to rebel and try new things so, “Adolescence is a vulnerable period for experimenting with alcohol and drugs (word 3).”  When teenagers have a good relationship with other members of their family, it decreases the risk of wanting to rebel from their parents. This, in turn, will help these children not reach out to alcohol and drugs because they do not need to experiment with these things.

The availability of drugs and alcohol for underage children has increased since 1990.    “In 1990, about 25% of Grade 10 students [in the survey] reported to have used cannabis at least once in their lifetime By [sic] 2002, this figure rose to 45% (word 3).”  Because it is so much more readily available, these adolescents need to know why they should not use this drug and the harmful effects it will have on their bodies.  It is important to have parental figures telling the children in a kind way to not utilize these addictive substances.

Cannabis and alcohol are often referred to as gateway drugs.  Many times people that use these substances often are exposed to other, more harmful drugs.  “The risk for OID [other illegal drugs] initiation appeared 21 times higher among cannabis experimenters and 124 times higher among daily cannabis users than among non-users (word 2).”  This shows that when adolescents are in an environment that involves the use of drugs, they are much more likely to get involved with other illegal drugs such as LSD, hallucinogens, opioids, and heroin.