Did you know that teens are considered the highest risk for alcohol or drug dependencies or addictions. About one half of high school seniors have admitted to using alcohol or an illegal drugs.Substance abuse and addictions of people that fall into this age group also show increased risk of involvement in crime, high-risk sexual behavior, accidents, and injuries. Teens that use alcohol and drugs are more likely to have poor school performance and have higher dropout rates.

Parents and other adults in the community need to become more active in the lives of teens so that we can show them the importance of taking care of themselves. It takes people to become involved to make that difference.

When I was in collage we all used to smoke dope all the time , and when I am in my 30's thats when I gave up smoking , so I think that teens are more likely to somke then older people , I don't know why

So you are one of them that got other people or did it with some people , why did you do it ? this is the problem with the kids today ? why do they want to do this .

Because even when taught to say no, some kids are just followers and not leaders. That is why it still happens, and some children are afraid they will be looked at a baby or wimp. So they do it not fully understanding the consequences of their actions and how it will affect their life in the future.

I like this thread it is very clear about how drugs and alcohol affect our children today. But need to tell people how they can help their children to continue to say no throughout their lives.

hazephase said: When I was in collage we all used to smoke dope all the time , and when I am in my 30's thats when I gave up smoking , so I think that teens are more likely to somke then older people , I don't know why

I think that teens take that saying "live life to the fullest" a bit too far. They just want to have fun and drugs and alcohol are fun. its what everyone else their age does, and they dont want to grow up yet. It doesn't cross their mind that they could get addicted, they just do it in the spur of the moments and sometimes its too late to stop those moments.

Exactly and they don't realize that their brains are still developing and they're at the most risk of becoming addicted.  This is how I was, I thought it'd be fun to smoke weed once in a while and take a Vicodin once in a while but then after a short time, it started becoming who I was.  Now it's like I struggle with it, but I felt like I had to change who I was in order to get over my cravings. 

I think that most the age when people use drugs is high school years so this doesn't really amaze me. That was the most time I used drugs and most of my friends too. Everyone else was doing it so we all just wanted to know what it felt like. Also when people talked about it it was kind of embarassing to admit that you've never done it before. And the people that haven't done it is something thats WOW! But since there is so much drug use around this age I also think this could be the most age that people may develop an addiction, and also the hardest to quit.

This doesn't surprise me at all. The most time I recall using drugs or drinking was during high school. In college your kind of isolated from everyone else so you dont get very pressured. but in high school its what everyone would talk about. When they start talking about drinking it gets you to start wanting to drink also, and same with drugs. You dont get just pressured but also influenced. And in highschool you hang out around a variety of different people, sometimes the drugs and alcohol is around and its hard to say no when its there. You also dont want to look dumb being the only one not participating. So it really doesn't surprise me.

When your a teen its like a cool thing to do drugs and get drunk. Its what everyone does on the weekends.