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Substance Abuse in Adolescents

Walden University

SOCW 6361-5

09/07/2024

Substance Abuse in Adolescent

Adolescence is a critical time when an individual develops biologically, psychologically, and socially. At this time, substance abuse becomes a social problem affecting many youths in the world. It is also at this time that youths become vulnerable to different kinds of influences such as experimentation, peer pressure, and stress which may lead to substance abuse and addiction. According to the report given by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA 2022), about 22% of students in high school use illegal drugs while alcohol remains a common use substance. These substances used by adolescent have negative impacts on their health, academic performance, and mental wellness. This essay is going to look at how substance abuse has become a social problem, how it affects its population, and how social work values affect the problem.

The problem of substance abuse among adolescents has been recorded for decades but it became a social problem around the 20th century that is around the 1960s and 1970s (NIDA 2022). During that time, the United States enforced a movement known as Counterculture which did experiments on adolescents to improve public knowledge about the abuse of the substance. NIDA (2022) also says that in tackling the problem, there was also an initiative launched by President Nixon “War on Drugs” in the year 1971 which aimed at law enforcement, treatment, and prevention of the substance. Besides that, the Drug Abuse Resistance Education(DARE) campaign was also launched to teach youths about the consequences of substance abuse in 1983.

Originally, the abuse of substances among youth was connected with certain groups of people which varied with subcultures and socioeconomic groups (NIDA 2022). As time went by, the type of adolescents, who have been affected by substance abuse has varied widely. In recent days, the problem has gone beyond race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic boundaries. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA 2019), nowadays, adolescents who come from households with low-income, unstable families, and mental health problems are the ones that are affected the most.

According to Nath et al., (2020), substance abuse among adolescents has posed a major problem to social work values and ethics regarding the individual's respect and self-improvement. While social work has the objective of empowering beings and promoting their well-being, substance abuse mostly leads to self-annihilation and behaviors that are unfavorable to others. Substance abuse also results in stigma as a result of addiction, which goes against the social work value aim of encouraging social justice and lowering inequality (Nath et al., 2020). The majority of the adolescents who abuse the substances are mostly seen as criminals instead of being given support services that line up with social work ethics of care and understanding. Social workers play an important role in providing solutions that focus on the prevention, treatment, and education of substance abuse among adolescents.

Several key policies need to be addressed in the identification of the policies that might be able to address substance abuse. The next step is to conduct an analysis that is thorough to the local, state, and government policies that exist (SAMHSA 2019). The analysis will focus on reviewing school-based programs, juvenile reforms, and mental health services that have the objective of reducing substance abuse use. Policies that support harm reduction strategies such as counseling should be enforced and collaboration with groups such as SAMHSA that work on the prevention of substance abuse policies should be used to give solutions to substance abuse adolescents.

In conclusion, the abuse of substances in adolescents has become a crucial social problem that people have tried to address for a long time. Initially, the problem was being addressed through condemnation ways that were so scary, but nowadays, the problem is being addressed through prevention, harm reduction, and mental health support initiatives. Nath et al., (2020) say that most adolescents are being affected by the abuse of substances, and it's important to derive policies that are congruent with the values and dignity of social work and justice. Substance abuse can also be prevented through endless research with advocacy where social workers implement long-term policies that help adolescents affected by substance abuse.

References

Nath, A., Choudhari, S. G., Dakhode, S. U., Rannaware, A., & Gaidhane, A. M. (2022). Substance abuse amongst adolescents: An issue of public health significance. Cureus.  https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.31193

National Institute on Drug Abuse. (2020). Monitoring the future survey: Trends in prevalence of various drugs. https://www.drugabuse.gov

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (2019). Key substance use and mental health indicators in the United States: Results from the 2018 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. https://www.samhsa.gov

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