Introduction As a 12 year old pre-teen, I started experimenting with marijuana. I started because of the same reasons that most kids start, because my friends were all doing drugs. My drug abuse started really getting bad at about fourteen years of age. At 14, I was using marijuana about three times a day and I was using LSD at least once every two days. By the time I was 17, I was no longer using marijuana and LSD. I had moved on to harder and more destructive drugs. I was using amphetamines and cocaine on a daily basis by the age of 17 years of age. I was abusing drugs behind my family’s backs for years.
I stayed clean for about eight and a half years, until one day I started using amphetamines once again and eventually started using crack, as well. I abused both drugs for a year and a half, until I realized how I was destroying my family. With drug abuse on the rise, everyone should know about the six most popular drugs on the streets, the signs of drug abuse, and about the research of pre-teenage drug abuse. Popular Drugs Today {draw:frame} According to the U. S. Drug Enforcement Administration Web site, the six most popular drugs on the streets today are Amphetamine, Cocaine, Crack, LSD, Marijuana, and Opium/Heroin.
Amphetamine, also known as Methamphetamine, is second in line as the most frequently used drug, next to alcohol and marijuana. The seizure of the laboratory materials has been increasing dramatically in some states. This drug is highly addictive as a potent stimulant to the central nervous system. This drugs main ingredient is mostly a pharmaceutical product. In 1971, it was added into the Schedule II of the Controlled Substance Act (CSA). Amphetamine has many street names, but the five most popular are speed, meth, ice, crystal, and crank.
The short-term effects are an increased sense of wakefulness, physical activity, and decreased need to eat. There is a brief sensation reported from people who smoke or inject this drug, but people who orally ingest or snort this drug have a long-lasting sensation. The long-term effects of this drug are addiction, which consist of relapsing and compulsive drug-seeking. It also causes functional and molecular changes in the brain. When addicted to this drug, most abusers show symptoms that include violent behaviors, anxiety, confusion, and insomnia.
An abuser can also {draw:frame} display several psychotic features, such as paranoia, auditory hallucinations, mood disturbances, and delusions. Cocaine is also an addictive stimulant that affects the brain directly. It is one of the oldest drugs on the streets. Cocaine in its purest form is called cocaine hydrochloride, and has been abused for more than 100 years. It is derived from the coca leaves. Cocaine has been one of the drugs on the Schedule II of the Controlled Substance Act (CSA) since 1970. Cocaine has only a few street names.
They are Blow, nose candy, snowball, tornado, and wicky sticky. The short-term effects of cocaine are the sense of euphoria, energetic, talkative and mentally alert. The mentally alert effects consist of the sensation of sight, sound and touch. The long-term effects are a constant since of need for the drug. It also causes a constant need {draw:frame} for the high with an unusual failure to achieve that high. The drug called Crack is the purest free-based form of cocaine. LSD was first synthesized in 1938 by Albert Hofmann, a chemist working for the Sandoz Corporation in Switzerland.
He was researching the medical applications of various lysergic acid compounds coming from a fungus developed on rye grass called ergot. It is sold in every form. It is sold in tablet, capsules, and occasionally in a liquid form. It can also be absorbed onto paper, such as blotter paper, and cut into small decorative squares. It is a Schedule I drug of the Controlled Substance Act (CSA). LSD has five street names, which are acid, blotter acid, window pane, dots, and mellow yellow. The short-term effects are totally unpredictable. The effects really depend on how much of the drug a person takes.
LSD usually takes about 30 to 90 minutes after ingestion to take effect, and the effects last up to about 12 hours to wear off. These effects consist of dilated pupils, high temperature, increased heart rate, sweating, and loss of appetite, sleeplessness, dry mouth, and tremors. The long-term effects of this drug are most usually flashbacks. This usually happens after a person has used LSD for a long period of time and has stopped using the drug. People who have used this drug for a long time also may {draw:frame} eventually develop long-lasting psychoses, like schizophrenia or severe depression.
LSD is not considered an addictive drug. The most commonly abused drug is Marijuana. It is a dried and shredded green/brown mixture of flowers, stems, seeds, and leaves of a plant called the Cannabis savativa. This drug can either be smoked or ingested in food or tea. It can be smoked either like a cigarette called a joint, a cigar called a blunt, or a pipe called a bong. It can also be mixed with other drugs to change the effects called lacing. The main chemical in marijuana is called THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinal). It is a Schedule I substance of the Controlled Substance Act (CSA).
Marijuana has many street names, such as grass, pot, weed, bud, Mary Jane, dope, indo, and hydro. Marijuana has several short-term effects. The effects begin almost immediately. They can effect one’s brain for anywhere from an hour to three hours, when smoked. The effects are completely different when the drug is eaten. It can take anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour for them to take effect and can last longer than with smoking the drug. The long-term effects for a regular smoker of the drug are {draw:frame} the same as someone who smokes tobacco. It can also damage the short-term memory.
Heroin and Opium’s is pretty much the same thing. Heroin is a highly addictive drug. It is made from morphine, which is a substance taken from the poppy seed plant. It is usually white or brown, but sometimes it is a sticky, black substance. In this form, heroin is called “black tar heroin. ” H {draw:frame} eroin having no medical utility is part of the Schedule I of the Controlled Substance Act (CSA). It has five popular street names, which are smack, thunder, hell dust, big H, and nose drops. The short-term effects consist on how the drug is put in the body; intravenously, sniffed, or smoked.
The long-term effects consist of collapsed veins, infection of the heart lining and valves, abscesses, cellulites, and liver diseases just to name a few. Pre-Teen Drug Abuse Statistics According to the Taylor and Francis Health Sciences, in November 2003 the University of Glasgow did a study to show what kind of knowledge most pre-teens had about drugs. The study showed that out of 216 pre-teenage children, about a quarter of them thought that illegal drugs where bad. The rest of the pre-teens were able to tell which drug they thought were worse than others.
Most of them thought that marijuana was the less harmful of all of the drugs. The interviews were semi-structured and consisted of basic knowledge of drugs, their feelings towards them, and about any experience or exposure to drugs, by themselves or by others. Most of the children at pre-teen age have very little educational knowledge of drugs. Most children at pre-teen age that have so little knowledge are usually the ones that are more susceptible to drug use. Most pre-teens have a well found knowledge of marijuana. Some pre-teens consider marijuana no more harmful than cigarettes or alcohol.
Most pre-teens considered heroin and ecstacy as the most dangerous drug out there. Many pre-teens say that heroin or any drug dealing with needles were the most dangerous drug on the streets. The pre-teens interviewed in the study explained why they felt these drugs are so dangerous. Their response was that they were dangerous, andit can hurt the veins in the body. Table 1. Legal and illegal drug use among preteens (Glasgow and Newcastle) Since young people could use more than one drug the total number of drug users cannot be inferred simply by summing the totals for individual drugs.
Most pre-teens who use drugs are exposed to drugs usually by either a friend because of peer pressure or by parents who are drug abusers. Many pre-teens who try drugs because of peer pressure usually only try the drugs once and then never again. In a few cases, peer pressure end up causing none stop need for the drug. As for drug abusing parents, most pre-teens who have parents who use drugs usually keep doing drugs because they see their parents use them and think it is okay to continue abusing drugs. Signs of Drug Abuse
The signs of drug abuse consist of a change in personality, physical appearance, school activity, and school performance. The usual changes in personality are sometimes easy to notice. The known changes in personality consist of becoming disrespectful, anger, acts of paranoia or confused, extreme mood swings, depression, keeping secrets, stealing, having more money or the lack there of, and acting withdrawn from friends and family. The usual changes in physical appearances of drug abuse are poor hygiene, sleeping problems, loss of appetite, weight fulguration, and either hyperactivity or loss of energy.
The school problems of drug abuse consist of dropping old friends, school activities, skipping school, loss of concentration, and having trouble remembering things. Conclusion As a former pre-teen drug addict, I hope that this paper will not only help pre-teens with a drug problem, but also help parents know how to pre-warn their children. As so many studies have shown, most pre-teens who try drugs are from families where their parents either never prepared them or miss informed them all together. Drug abuse can not only ruin one’s family, but also ruin one’s own life and future.
There is a lot of information out in the world today to hopefully prevent as many pre-teens from becoming addicted to drugs, and enough information for parents to try to better inform their children. There are so many support groups for drug abuse, but not just for addicts. There are also support groups for parents of pre-teen addicts, and support groups for children of addicts. If anyone is looking for help, they need to only go to their local health department or welfare department, and they will point you in the right direction for the help that you need.
There are also several hotlines out there for any help that anyone needs. References Tec, Nechama (P. H. D. ) (1974). Marihuana and Other Illegal Drugs. International Journal of Social Psychiatry. 20(173). Retrieved August 18, 2009, from the University Library. McIntosh, J. ; MacDonald, F. ; McKeganey, N. (Nov. 2003). Knowledge and Perceptions of Illegal Drugs in a Sample of Pre-teenage Children. Drug: education, prevention and policy. Vol. 10; No. 4 (331-344). Retrieved August 18, 2009, from the University Library.
McKeganey, N. ; McIntosh, J. ; MacDonald, F. ; Gannon, M. ; Gilvarry, E. ; McArdle, P. ; McCarthy, S. (Aug. 2004). Preteen Children and Illegal Drugs. Drugs: education, prevention and policy. Vol. 11; No. 4 (315-327). Retrieved August 18, 2009, from the University Library. U. S. DEA (2002). Drug Information. Retrieved August 18, 2009, from http://www. usdoj. gov/dea/concern/concern. htm. SAMHSA (2008). Signs of Drug Use. Retrieved August 18, 2009, from http://www. streetdrugs. org/signs1. htm
