The Misuse of Drugs, Often Known as Opioid Addiction (Essay Sample)

The Misuse of Drugs, Often Known as Opioid Addiction
A number of health issues begin in adolescence and continue to plague people into adulthood. Adolescence is a frequent beginning point for hazardous behaviors such as smoking, drinking, and drug use, which are significantly associated with increased rates of disease and mortality and represent severe public health issues. Being a teenager and raising one provide considerable challenges. While most kids who try drugs will not develop an addiction or misuse issue as adults, doing drugs at a young age is still not a good decision. Teenagers' mental and physiological states vary from those of adults as they grow from infancy to adulthood. Although drug experimentation is frequent among this group, the use of drugs and other stressors may significantly impede development, leaving them unprepared for the rigors of adulthood. This paper focuses on adolescent drug abuse.
Teenagers between 13 and 19 go through some of their most challenging developmental periods. According to Wakeford et al. (2018), adolescents are affected by hormonal changes, puberty, social and familial pressures, job and school responsibilities, and various other events and obstacles. Teen pregnancy, drug addiction, sexual misconduct, bullying, social pressure, obesity, alcohol usage, depression, and on-screen violence are a few contemporary issues that today's youth face.
Misuse of drugs, often known as opioid addiction, happens when a person regularly consumes narcotics to experience their euphoric benefits. Global drug usage has reached pandemic proportions, particularly among youth. For various reasons, people misuse a broad range of psychoactive drugs. To conduct a full assessment and screening, it is critical to understand the adolescent's drug use and how it impacts other aspects of their life. According to Salmanzadeh et al. (2020), "assessment" refers to determining the root cause of a problem, arriving at a diagnosis, and deciding on a plan of action to resolve it. As a result, screening determines the probability of an issue's presence.
The most common drugs of abuse among adolescents are alcohol, marijuana, and cigarettes. According to CDC statistics, over one-third of high school seniors (roughly 34%) reported drinking alcohol in a month. Teenagers are also prone to overdosing on marijuana. In 1991, slightly more than 15% of high school students reported having used marijuana in the preceding month. Hudgins et al. (2019) say that in 2019, around 22% of respondents reported using marijuana. According to Johnston et al. (2021), approximately 37% of high school pupils have used marijuana in the past. Electronic cigarettes have eclipsed regular cigarettes in popularity among young people. This population prefers e-cigarettes over regular cigarettes. Johnston et al. (2021), one-fifth of high school students have used e-cigarettes during the last 30 days and more than 5% also use cigarettes regularly. Based on the data drug abuse is a paramount problem affecting young people today.
Most people who smoke started while they were teens, making tobacco use the leading preventable cause of death globally. According to Johnston et al. (2021), one in every ten girls and one in every five boys globally between the ages of 13 and 15 currently smoke, while the figures vary greatly by nation. Even though the number of young teens who smoke is decreasing in most high-income countries (HICs) and some low- and middle-income countries, it is still highest in Europe and the Western Pacific.
 Alcohol consumption accounts for approximately 4% of the global sickness burden. Although adolescent and young adult alcohol consumption are increasing globally, it is decreasing in most high-income countries (HICs) in Europe and North America. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), adolescent drinking rates were highest in Europe and America in 2017 and lowest in South-East Asia and the Eastern Mediterranean. On average, men drink more alcohol than women, although the gender difference narrows as children age. Cannabis use in adolescence has been related to lower IQs and an increased risk of harm in adulthood. And, unlike many other substances, the prevalence of cannabis use among boys and girls is about equal in many countries.
No one is immune to the negative impacts of drug abuse, and this is true for people of all ages. Abuse, or maltreatment of any drug endangers the health and safety of seniors, adults, and adolescents of all ages. Drug use and misuse offer genuine concerns in teenagers' everyday lives due to the detrimental impacts on their bodies. Addiction to different drugs is not confined to a single period of a person's life but maybe a persistent issue. In other words, the consequences of the abuse or neglect lie completely on the shoulders of the family. According to Ballester et al. (2020), abuse has left many with mental, emotional, and physical wounds. Teenage drug addiction has a lot of different causes, and many people have been sucked into the downward spiral because they couldn't stop it or help themselves.