? Essay, Research Paper
Adolescence is much like a midpoint in ones life; when a person is neither a kid nor an adult. At this period, teens have passed the age when they were called kids but are not yet qualified to be adults. Teenagers want to think like adults, behave like adults and also start to view themselves as independent beings in decision making. All this hormonal changes also come with the negativity of maturity such as drugs and alcohol. The statistics below show that the percentage of teenagers using drugs and alcohol in the last decade has increased. Why is this? The answer is that teenagers are under pressure by their peers, mass media and also the influence of parents.
8th-Graders
10th-Graders
12th-Graders
Marijuana
22.2%
40.9%
49.7%
Cocaine
4.7
7.7
9.8
Inhalants
15.4
17.0
19.7
LSD
4.1
8.5
12.2
Heroin
2.0
2.3
2.3
Alcohol
52.1
70.6
80.0
Cigarettes
44.1
57.6
64.6