Drug use in adolescents, social problem
Adolescent drug use represents a strong and latent public health problem due to its effects on short, medium and long term health creating a young population physically, socially and psychologically, what has done a social problem(Batllori, 2016).
Globalization has resulted in a growing process of diversification of the drug scenario, as well as the routes and mechanisms to enter countries. The abuse indices in each country show variations in the extension and type of substances used, according to statistics of demand for treatment in those of the center and Latin America prevails cocaine abuse, marijuana, heroin among other narcotics (Rivas, 2016).
In the last decade there have been very important progress in health education and teaching care of the main drugs (marijuana and cocaine), which generate the most serious social and health problems;because these substances are attributed to them at the world level as most of the demand for treatment, hospitalization, overdose, mortality, violence and participation of organized youth crime.
Currently the consumption of lawful and illegal drugs constitutes a serious worldwide problem. Every year, the United Nations Office against Drugs and Crime (UNODC) collects the most relevant drug data worldwide, its world reports propose that 275 million people, that is, 5.6 % of the adult populationof the world, at the time he has consumed some drug at least once in his adolescence. Many of these consumers began their process with alcohol and tobacco from very early ages (UNODC, 2018).
In this sense, for recent years the increase in drug use in Panama has presented significant growth. Significant and harmful fact for the population, since the use and abuse of drugs have led to dependency, whether psychological or physiological (UNODC, 2018).
It is noteworthy that the United Nations Organization (UN, 2017), infers, that drug use is a global phenomenon, therefore it is difficult to find a country in which its delivery or traffic is not observed, despitethat the characteristics of consumption vary in each nation.
Colomina and García (2014), think that: adolescents every day enter the world of drugs at alarmingly earlier ages, they look at it as a game or tool with which they can face the adult world.
As an initial estimate about 13.8 million adolescents between ages 15 and 16 consumed drugs in the year prior to the report (UNODC, 2018).
Adolescence problems constitute a complicated challenge for adults, this problem must be carefully carried out by family, school and even health institutions and it is difficult to understand the adolescent and the need for care that leads to acts of rebellion and experimentnew things. The remarkable presence of drugs in young people and dependence in the realization of daily activities have determined the consumption of these substances as normal, becoming a reference element in youth culture (Recalde, 2014).
The studies carried out that those who begin to consume alcohol or any other psychoactive substance in the early stages of adolescence (12 to 14 years of age) are more likely to develop long -term abuse or dependence, than those who begin to consume alcoholIn adulthood. (CICAP, 2019).
There are two typologies of drug use among adolescents: drugs used in nightlife, as well as in recreational environments and the use of drugs in young people who are in a critical social environment facing complicated situations in this way. (UNODC, 2018).
The consumption of legal drugs can be initiated with an experimental consumption that is only done once, however, it can be aggravated by the use of these substances, that is, early addiction leads to increasing the probability that theAddiction during adulthood. Being the main access to experimentation with illicit psychoactive substances. (Rodríguez, 2018)
Among the lawful drugs of mass consumption at an early age we have alcohol and tobacco, among illicit drugs are cannabis, cocaine, cocaine derivatives and amphetamines. The consumption of any tendening or illegal substance in adolescents must be a reason for great concern and highlights the importance of preventive interventions from early childhood (Cicad, 2019).
Studies on drug use have been carried out in the European continent where the uncontrolled use of illegal substances in the last decade is observed, alcohol being the most consumed lawful substance and cannabis the illegal drug with more tendency in the European school population. The Espad survey (European School Survey Project on alcohol and Other Drugs) in 2011, where results indicated the consumption of cannabis throughout life between schoolchildren aged 15 to 16 years in countries such as Norway and theCzech Republic, as a second option after alcohol. (Emcdda, 2013).
Drug use continues to represent an important problem in the American continent where countries like the United States present studies where the consumption of illicit drugs has increased considerably. It is estimated that, in 2011, at least 22.5 million people from 12 years of age or older used an illicit drug or abused psychotherapeutic medications. It was expected that a large percentage of new consumers start in adolescence, 3.0 million people who consumed the drug for the first time half of these were under 18 years of age, moving alcohol consumption in this country (Nida, 2013).
Drug use and problems associated with society, currently constitute one of the main public health problems. Indeed, the United Nations Organization (UN, 2017) estimates that around 4.3% of the world’s population over 15 years of age consumes drugs currently. This means that about 185 million people worldwide are drug users.
To do this, drug dependence is a complex biopsychosocial phenomenon, in such a way, that according to addiction is rooted, the experience of the person in impoverishing and the dominant habit becomes the center of their life, harmful affecting healthAnd the individual’s behavior, including the family and many times also to society (Caraveo, 2017).
Here, that problems in adolescence constitute a complicated challenge for adults, this problem must be carefully treated by family, school and even health institutions, since it is difficult to understand the adolescent and the need for care that leads him toacts of rebellion and experience new things. Such is the case, of the remarkable presence of drugs in young people and dependence in the realization of daily activities that have determined the consumption of these substances as normal, becoming a reference element in the youth culture (Recalde, 2014).
The availability of drugs, coupled with social problems such as poverty, family disintegration and the characteristics of adolescence, among others, make an increase in the use and abuse of psychoactive substances among the young population of the country in the country(Mora, 2010).
Starting from the premise, adolescents represent the most susceptible population to be influenced towards drug use of any kind, since during this stage of life there are various changes in physiology, in family relationships, in sexuality, inCognitive growth, in one’s identity, as well as trying to meet the standards expected by a society and family itself.
Leave feedback