Teen Addiction

An estimated 4.2 million adolescents under the age of 18 and over the age of 12 consumed illegal drugs in 2017, which is 16.7 percent of the total number of individuals in that age range. Some illegal drugs are used more commonly than others.

For instance, five percent of teenagers tried marijuana in the same year, while four percent of people the same age used crack or cocaine. Around one percent of adolescents consumed heroin.

However, alcohol and tobacco are still used by adolescents more commonly than all illegal drugs, and they can be incredibly harmful in their own right. It is relatively easy to keep track of the alcohol and tobacco usage of teenagers, since these are legal substances that can be monitored as easily as most other products.

An astonishing 11 percent of American alcohol is consumed by teenagers, even though the drinking age is 21. Binge drinking is a common enough problem among teenagers that they are responsible for a large percentage of American alcohol sales, which are only increasing.

Teenage Drug Abuse Patterns

Many people are concerned with teenagers using illegal drugs. While this is certainly a problem, the use of alcohol and tobacco during adolescence can be just as much of an issue. The drug use patterns among teenagers also sometimes change from generation to generation. Experts who were worried about teenagers using heroin or cocaine a generation or two ago may worry more about prescription drugs, behavioral medications, and other drugs today.

• The number of teenage boys who have used illegal drugs is more than six times higher than the number of teenage girls who have tried them. Adolescent boys are also more likely to engage in other riskier behaviors, such as aggressive driving. As such, they are more likely to die for reasons that are connected to drugs.

• Despite the efforts of schools to monitor and control the use of illegal drugs, the teenagers who have witnessed the illegal use of drugs take place still primarily saw it happen at school. Teenagers are more heavily supervised by adults today than they were in the past, which has had an impact on teenage drug use in general. In some cases, this has just changed the location of teenage drug use, without necessarily stopping it altogether.

• Prescription drug use and abuse among teenagers is also starting to go up, including among conscientious teenagers who are trying to succeed academically. These students are more likely to take Ritalin that was not prescribed to them, and around 10 percent of seniors at the high school level have now used these sorts of drugs. An additional 10 percent of people in this age group have become reliant on tranquilizers and sedatives.

Teen Drug Use and Neurological Development

While drug abuse is always worrying, adolescents and adults who develop substance use problems will still face different consequences. The brains of adults have already finished developing, especially in adults who are over the age of 25. Neuroscientists still are not exactly certain when brain development stops, especially since the brains of adults are constantly changing.

However, a substantial amount of brain development occurs in early adolescence. People under the age of 18 who take drugs are much more likely to become dependent on those drugs. Every single year makes a difference. An estimated 70 percent of people who use illegal drugs before they turn 13 become addicted to those drugs. If it happens after the age of 17, the percentage drops significantly, with 27 percent of adolescents in that age range developing drug use problems.

Some of the brain damage that teenagers sustain if they start to use drugs too early can be permanent. Brain development will not start again after these people have used drugs. The drugs can also influence how the brain develops, which can cause cognitive dysfunction in many adolescents, and which might make them much more likely to develop other addictive patterns of behavior in the future.

Teen Addiction Resources

Fortunately, there are many forms of social support available today for the teenagers who are struggling with drug addictions. Modern teenagers have always had Internet access, which they can reach with their phones. They can learn more about drug use in general, and they can find their way out of it more easily than the adolescents of the past.

The modern Partnership for Drug-Free Kids organization has a helpline that is available every day. People can also text or email the specialists who work there.

Younger teenagers might want to go to the Cool Spot website, which is more geared towards people in their age range.

Are you concerned about your teen and drug addiction? We are here for you and we are here to help.