Monday, April 20, 2015

By the time that they're seniors in high school, about half of teens have used a drug or controlled substance at least once. The most common ones used are either marijuana or household substances.



I asked ten people whose ages range from 15-19 and that had used some type of controlled substance or drug the same three questions:

  • Why did you take whatever you did?
  • Do you feel like you took it out of peer pressure?
  • Do you have any regrets about what you did?
Six of the ten people that I had asked decided to respond.

Every person that I'd asked had a different reason for taking whatever drug/controlled substance that they'd done. Boredom, experimentation, wanted acceptance, being told to do so, wanting to appear "cool", and doing them because everyone else was doing so were included in their reasons for doing drugs.
  • "I did it because I wanted to feel loved and accepted. I wanted people to like me."
  • "I was bored and wanted to have fun."
  • "I did it purely out of curiousity. There was no pressure."
A majority of the people that I'd talked to (four of six, about 67%), had experienced peer pressure in doing so. The same amount of people regretted their actions.

Some people stated that the drugs that they had taken had helped them with their problems.

  • "It kind of helped me in a werd way. I became more socially active. I used to be really shy around everyone. It made me more relaxed and stressed about certain things."

Source


3 comments:

  1. Why is there peer pressure when it comes to taking marijuana? Is there a bigger motive than just taking it for fun, peer pressure, or to fit in? How about those who didn't want to take marijuana? Why did they decide not to take marijuana? I would suggest to add that into a part of your blog. It might help gain a wider view of things.

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  2. Thanks for the questions!

    Peer pressure can result from a either lot of people or ones that are close to a person taking drugs, which makes that person want to try them for whatever reason (curiosity, wanting to fit in, etc).

    When I polled people, I didn't ask them what drug that they'd used in to keep them more anonymous.

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  3. Teens are more likely to get addicted to drugs because they're younger and have a lot of stress.

    That's a good idea to find any patterns of drug usage through the earlier generations!

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