Drug Abuse
In the
1960s, the drug culture became a part of American society. But what was once the
past time of Timothy Leary's disciples and the habit of poverty-stricken junkies
went mainline to the middle class. A culture that once lived in the safe world
of Ozzie and Harriet awoke to the stark realization that even their son Ricky
used cocaine.
Statistics.
The
statistics are staggering. The average age of first alcohol use is 12, and the
average age of first drug use is 13. According to the National Institute on Drug
Abuse, 93 percent of all teenagers have some experience with alcohol by the end
of their senior year of high school, and6 percent drink daily. Almost two-thirds
of all American young people try illicit drugs before they finish high school.
One out of sixteen seniors smokes marijuana daily, and 20 percent have
done so for at least a month sometime in their lives. But Americans have changed
their minds
about drugs. A Gallup poll released on the 20th anniversary of Woodstock showed
that drugs,
once an integral part of the counterculture, are considered to be the number-one
problem in
America. Two decades before, young people tied drugs to their "search for
peace, love and
good times." But by 1989, Americans associated drugs with "danger,
crime and despair." A
similar conclusion could be found among the nation's teenagers. A Gallup poll of
500 teens
found that
60 percent said concern over drug abuse was their greatest fear--outranking fear
of
AIDS, alcohol, unemployment, and war.
Nationwide
surveys indicate that about 90 percent of the nation's youth experiment with
alcohol--currently teenagers' drug of choice. An annual survey conducted by the
University of
Michigan has revealed that over 65 percent of the nation's seniors currently
drink, and about 40
percent reported a heavy drinking episode within the two weeks prior to the
survey.
Another survey released by the University of Colorado shows that the problem of
drug use is
not just outside the church. The study involved nearly 14,000 junior-high and
high-school
youth. It compared churched young people with unchurched young people and found
very little
difference.
For example, 88 percent of the unchurched young people reported drinking beer
compared
with 80 percent of churched young people. When asked how many had tried
marijuana, 47
percent of the unchurched young people had done so compared with 38 percent of
the
churched youth. For amphetamines and barbiturates, 28 percent of the unchurched
youth had
tried them as well as 22 percent of the churched young people. And for cocaine
use, the
percentage was 14 percent for unchurched and 11 percent for churched youth.
Drugs and
Adolescents
