Marijuana is still is a leading drug among
most of the teenagers in the United States. Its popularity has been on a rapid
rise over the past years. People smoke or ingest this drug for a number of
reasons. Some of these reasons for using marijuana may be for religious,
medicinal or recreational purposes (Butts & Roman 32). The consequences of
marijuana depend on the level of THC (the major chemical in marijuana that
makes one you high) the plant has. What is marijuana? According to the National
Institute on Drug Abuse, Marijuana is a greenish-gray assortment of the dried
and shredded leaves/flowers of Cannabis sativa plant. It is known by different
names such as weed, herb, pot, ganja, Mary Jane, among many others (Golden,
Peterson, & Haley 44). It can be consumed in a number of ways such as smoking
or cooked with tea. In the contemporary society, there are numerous reasons as
to why the teenagers are increasingly using pot, and these reasons are driven
by a many issues which will be discussed.
Marijuana is the most utilized addictive
substance by most teenagers. There are is an increase in the number of
teenagers who are using marijuana presently in comparison to the previous
years. Marijuana usage rates for the high school students has been on the rise
between 2010 and 2014 from 5.2 percent to 6.1 percent for the high school
seniors, 2.8 percent to 3.3 percent for tenth grade students and 1.0 percent to
1.2 percent for eighth grade students (Bestor 23). High rates of cannabis use
by adolescents can influence learning, judgment and their motor skills, and has
the potential for future abnormalities in the development of the brain. The
manifestations of marijuana addiction are diverse, yet some are extremely
apparent; for instance, dropping out of school, getting high prior to, during,
as well as after school, lying to the parents, and so on. It does not take
years to turn into a pot addict.
Peer pressure frequently plays a role in
increasing the number of teenagers who smoke pot (Sheff 12). Peer pressure is
an aspect that happens in the life of every teenager; it can commence as early
as a teenager is in the elementary school. Being pressured into things, for
example, purchasing certain types of clothing or listening to a certain kind of
music are things a teen can be pressured into by his/her peers. Other peer
pressures can be as critical as utilizing of marijuana. Teenagers have an
invulnerability illusion that makes them accept that nothing will occur to
them, or nothing wrong will transpire. Peer pressure can be strong to the point
that it can lead young people or youngsters to significant circumstances that
conflict with their better judgment, such that it can push a youthful grown-up
to their first use with weed. Indeed, in the wake of being educated about the
harm smoking pot can bring about, teenagers can still be pressured into using
it. More adolescents give into conforming to peer pressure, particularly in
areas such as marijuana use.
Recent studies demonstrate that nearly 23% of
high school seniors have routinely utilized pot, and about 50% of all
adolescents have attempted it (Hyde & Setaro 30). Students simply do not
end up listening to bits of gossip about it; some even know where they can get
marijuana. Studies demonstrate that 91% of high school students know somebody
at their school which offers weed. Pressure for the utilization of pot does not
recently originate from the friends only. Youthful celebrities are routinely
photographed with it, for example, a celebrity such as Rihanna wearing a shirt
with the five-leaf plant which is a representation of pot. Most weed clients
contrast weed with cigarettes and accept that the main damage that originates
from pot is the increment of hunger. What they fail to know is the genuinely
terrifying side effects that weed can have on their youthful brains.
Beside nervousness, hallucinations, and panic
attacks, studies demonstrate that there is a conceivable connection between
youths who smoke pot as well as the ones who develop schizophrenia (Monti 22).
The other impacts that marijuana can result, in the long run, are harm to the
lungs and the reproductive organs. Another argument that cannabis users make is
that they do not believe in the addiction of pot. The National Institute on
Drug Abuse evaluates that around 9% of the individuals who use pot get addicted
and the number shoots up to very nearly 17% in the event that its initially
utilized amid a person's youthful years. Peer pressure has made it hard for
high school students to stay far from it, yet it can be an immense alleviation
in the wake of quitting. Cannabis is depicted like to a lesser extent a major
ordeal consistently. State after state has authorized weed for medicinal
utilization and now they are beginning to affirm it recreationally.
Teenagers use marijuana so that they may
relieve their stress conditions, anxiety, fear or psychological issues. Many
youths make use of marijuana because "it gets them going." For a few
teenagers, cannabis utilization is a method to help them manage their daily
activities. These teenagers report smoking pot when they get up in the morning
so they can get up and go to school. Subsequently, some relate their
utilization of marijuana with "staying in school." Other teenagers
use marijuana so that "it can make them cool": Many teenagers report
they utilize pot to ease stress and to help adapt to life's dissatisfactions,
for example, challenges at school and troubles at home. These youngsters assert
that utilizing marijuana permits them to unwind and calm down. For other
teenagers, they use marijuana because "it makes them feel better":
Marijuana utilization is once in a while attributed as an approach to enhance
inclination and overlook "bad things." Some teenagers living with
depression accept that weed utilization is the most effective prescription, and
they propose that nothing else has met expectations. These teenagers as well
note they can control the amount of marijuana they utilize and know when they
have had "enough."
There are those teenagers who use marijuana so
"it may help them to concentrate." There are some teenagers who
relate their utilization of marijuana to enhanced concentration with certain
school activities, for example, assignment arranged subjects such as math. They
report that utilizing marijuana helps them to "work" at their best
and complete their school work. On account of teenagers living with the
hyperactivity disorder, there is some conviction that weed is more powerful
than prescriptions like Ritalin. For other teenagers, "it assists them to
find sleep." To them, marijuana utilization is an instrument that makes
them be able to find sleep. A few adolescents portray their "occupied
personalities" during the evening and accept that cannabis permits them to
sleep and "quit thinking" since marijuana is superior to taking
resting pills. For other teenagers, marijuana "gives the opportunity to be
themselves": most teenagers characterize their successive weed use with
having the capacity to be in contact with their feelings and emotions. In this
manner, they assert that weed permits them to be more open and personal in
their discourses with companions.
Many youths use marijuana since the popular
culture endorses its use. The popular culture in the contemporary American
society encourages the teenagers to indulge in the consumption of marijuana.
For instance, music videos that are released by celebrities often show them
using as well as praising marijuana. It makes the teenagers seem as if they are
happy after using marijuana. There are as well many released videos under
pseudonyms of marijuana. Some of the celebrities who have openly been
demonstrated utilizing marijuana by media include the likes of Lil Wayne. It is
worth noting that teenagers hold these celebrities with high status, and they
may even attempt to copy what they practice in their music. As a result, this
makes teenagers ape them and eventually turn into marijuana smokers.
Psychological reliance: The increment in
today's pot consumption has physical outcomes, as well as psychological ones
also, with teenagers being the most defenseless exploited people. Specialists
find that when young people begin smoking pot at an early age, it is frequently
utilized with more noteworthy recurrence and as a part of bigger amounts than
if began sometime down the road. While we have a tendency to release the
capability of weed reliance - particularly when contrasted with tobacco, liquor
or illicit medications like heroin - around 1 in 6 youngsters will get to be
dependent. In the event, that marijuana is frequently used to diminish the
testing feelings ordinary of youthfulness, it simple to perceive how infrequent
smokers may get to be dependent. Teenagers who pick up a feeling of certainty
by smoking weed in social circumstances or utilization it to help them unwind
or slumber will doubtlessly think that it is convincing to utilize once more.
As opposed to creating inward aptitudes to adapt to life, pot can turn into
their go-to hotspot for solace.
Teenager drug usage has been on the increase
from the 90's. Nevertheless, marijuana is amongst the most popular drugs on the
grounds that it is so natural to get and normally inexpensive (Califano 32).
Most teenagers smoke marijuana so as to forget everything, without considering
the negative outcomes that marijuana has on them. Marijuana sells a lot nowadays
and it is a considerable measure more terrible than it used to be individuals'
bodies are building up resistance's to the medications the merchants need to
add more things so that it may help one to get the "high". Separation
is on the ascent and children feel its their deficiency and they require an
approach to escape from the torment of their fouled up life. An alternate
reason is on account of their friends weight them into utilizing medications
most weed clients are 12-18. The THC in the cannabis makes you encounter the
"high" yet what truly make the THC develop is the point at which this
sap turns out on to the leaves and stems. There are a considerable number of
things which need to be overcome by our teenagers yet they attempt to take all
of them out without a moment's delay when they ought to truly concentrate on
maybe a couple at once then when they unravel those they ought to proceed
onward to the following. With all the medication utilization going ahead in
this nation and on the off chance that its developing like the reviews say we
have to chip away at that before all America is only a pack of smolder outs.
Most high school students use marijuana as a
result of curiosity. They wonder how it would make them feel. Pressure from
friends and other impacts from relatives, and conflicts with their parents are
some of the significant reasons as to why adolescents use marijuana. The impact
of friends, as well as relatives, is a noteworthy motivation behind why
adolescents choose to smoke marijuana. At the point when pressure is mounted on
most teenagers, they have a noteworthy yearning to be accepted by their peers
or fill some sort space where they think they have to be at, and they truly
don't have to. A few adolescents will do anything to fill that space, and they
will fall into medications, sex, wrongdoing, and so on. Different impacts
incorporate uneasiness, outrage, discouragement, weariness, and various
different things. The rate of at which marijuana utilization takes place does
not differ significantly with aspects such as race; the marijuana usage rate
among all races is about the same.
Marijuana is utilized in numerous ways. The
most prominent and longest utilized system is the joint, which is a hand moved
cigarette with marijuana inside. Blunts are additionally getting to be more
prominent. An obtuse is a stogie in which the tobacco is supplanted with
marijuana. Different routines incorporate utilizing glass tubes, otherwise
called bongs, pipes, and eating. An example is the blending of marijuana with
brownie blend and preparing it. Other odd approaches to utilize marijuana
incorporate utilizing an apple as funnel and utilizing different protests, for
example, milk containers, or pop bottles. Marijuana is likewise utilized as a
part of numerous blends with different medications. Joints are in some cases
plunged into PCP and smoked. Blending marijuana with different medications may
expand the inebriating impacts, contingent upon the sort of medication it is
blended with and the kind of marijuana it is.
Another reason as to why there has been a
rising usage of marijuana by teenagers is the easy accessibility of this drug,
that is, acquiring marijuana is simple. Most teenagers get marijuana for free
from their peers. Most male students purchase their marijuana from the local
neighborhood or within the school. It can be accessed from close friends or the
"local peddler". It can as well be grown. In most of the areas in the
United States, there are at least one supplier of marijuana. It is something
that is easy to acquire and purchase. Various distinctive things can happen to
marijuana clients. They get to be may excessively inspired by common, ordinary
things. They disregard other vital things and concentrate on senseless things.
For instance, the client may discover his/ her shoe extremely intriguing to
take a gander at. They may concentrate on it for drawn out stretches of time.
Likewise, time appears to pass gradually. To somebody that is high, minutes
feel like hours. This makes the impacts of marijuana feel much more than the
three or four hours they truly last. The client feels loose, and his/her
circulatory strain drops underneath ordinary. This happens in light of the fact
that marijuana makes the veins extend. Alongside these impacts, there is a loss
of offset and bewilderment. The client gets to be exceptionally languid and
feels detached, bringing about a tired feeling while affected by marijuana. The
client may get to be extremely ravenous and has a sudden desire to eat a
considerable measure of sustenance. This impact is called having the
"munchies". While utilizing marijuana, the client's mouth might
likewise get to be extremely dry. This impact is called having
"cottonmouth." Hallucinations may take place depending on the type of
marijuana that someone has smoked.
Other influences that make the teenagers use
marijuana emanate from the mass media (Nelson 42). For instance, in music,
there is a music titled “Stoner,†which literally means someone who smokes
weed. Celebrities such as Two Chainz are often seen in their video smoking a
lot of marijuana. They are good examples and individuals, particularly
adolescents, admire them. On the off chance, that they discuss smoking
marijuana in their verses then that is the thing that their audience members will
be affected to do. An alternate path from the media is through films. The film
"Friday" is around two companions, Smokey (Chris Tucker) and Craig
(Ice Cube), which live in the hood in Los Angeles, CA. Smokey gets some weed
from the area dope merchant Big Worm (Faizon Love) and volunteers to offer it
for him. Rather Smokey satisfies his name and smokes up the entire marijuana,
and he kicks Craig off on it as well. Be that as it may Big Worm says he needs
his cash by ten o'clock that night, so they experience various assignments to
attempt to get the money.(Friday) It is common to see the motion picture, it is
funny, and when you make smoking marijuana amusing it tells youngsters that
once they smoke marijuana they will be interesting as well. Others comprise of
the television networks, jewelry, as well as clothing.
In conclusion, there exist many reasons as to
why teenagers are increasingly using pot today. These reasons range from peer
pressure, curiosity, to relieving stressful condition. Most drug use commences
in the preteen as well as teenage years, years which are most crucial in their
maturation process. During these years, most teenagers are faced with intricate
issues of discovering their self-identity, along with their sexual roles,
learning to deal with authority, becoming independent and searching for life
goals that would give significance to life. Drugs such as marijuana are readily
accessible and teenagers are curious as well as venerable, and there is also
peer pressure to experiment with them, and break away from issues that affect
them The use, as well as the reasons of marijuana use by teenagers, is more
often than not the result of an amalgamation of several factors such as mental,
economical, and social problems. Drugs addiction amongst teenagers usually lead
to a depressed life some of whom end up committing suicide.
Works Cited
Bestor, Sheri L. M. Substance Abuse: The
Ultimate Teen Guide. Lanham: The Scarecrow Press, Inc, 2013. Print[A1] .
Butts, Jeffrey A, and John Roman. Juvenile Drug
Courts and Teen Substance Abuse. Washington, D.C: Urban Institute Press, 2004.
Print.[A2]
Califano, Joseph A. High Society: How
Substance Abuse Ravages America and What to Do About It. New York:
PublicAffairs[A3] , 2008. Print.
Golden, Robert N, Fred L. Peterson, and John
Haley. The Truth About Drugs. New York, NY: Facts on File, 2009. Print.[A4]
Hyde, Margaret O, and John F. Setaro. Drugs
101: An Overview for Teens. Brookfield, Conn: Twenty-First Century Books, 2003.
Print.
Monti, Peter. Adolescents, Alcohol, and
Substance Abuse: Reaching Teens Through Brief Interventions. New York: Guilford
Publications, 2012. Print.
Nelson, David E. Teen Drug Abuse. Detroit:
Gale Cengage Learning, 2011. Print.
Sheff, David. Clean: Overcoming Addiction and Ending America's Greatest Tragedy. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013. Internet resource.
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