UNDERSTANDING YOUTH AND DRUG WORLD

Many teens know of or have read the book CRANK by Ellen Hopkins. It
is today's generation of teen's version of Go Ask Alice. Both stories
have powerful ways of describing the deadly descent into drugs. Both
depict what happens when a teen gets caught in the controlling grasp
of addicting drugs.

The amount of street drugs available continually grows. Teens may
also choose to get high from cough medicine and prescription
medication as well as sell it. The drugs become more and more
dangerous. If a teen were to buy some marijuana, it could be
unknowingly laced with even more dangerous drugs. Many teens say they
will only smoke marijuana, but they may unknowingly become addicted
to other drugs the marijuana is laced with.

Another danger when experimenting with one drug is that it can lead
to becoming involved with other drugs. Teens that drink are fifty
times more likely to use cocaine than teens who never consume
alcohol. And with teens beginning to try drugs younger and younger,
the problems are getting much worse. Twenty percent of grade eight
kids have admitted to using marijuana.

Many teens believe they will be able to quit drugs whenever they
want, believing they will live a life without them when they are "all
grown up".

However, studies show that children who try drugs or alcohol before
age 15 run a greater risk of being substance-dependent as adults,
contracting sexually transmitted diseases, dropping out of school or
being convicted of a crime. Drugs can also lead to teenage pregnancy.

On an online forum asking why teens do drugs, many believe it's due
to peer pressure. Others say it is to release stress. But the
majority of people on the forum believed society has failed teens who
become addicted to drugs.

Drugs can and will kill you, a fact known by many. But some teens
don't believe the drugs have the ability to kill or harm you. Truth
is anything that changes the way your body is supposed to work is
harmful. Drugs can increase your blood pressure and heart rate,
reduce your reaction time, sight, concentration and thinking
abilities, and slow your breathing.

A life of drugs can quickly turn into a frightening life. Some
parents believe they have no control and are unable to prevent their
children from entering that life. However, it has been shown that
teenagers whose parents talk to them on a regular basis about the
dangers of drug use are forty-two percent less likely to use drugs
than those whose parents don't. Simply talking to your children has a
larger impact than you may think.

As mentioned before, CRANK describes in accurate detail the descent
into drugs used by a teenage girl. Near the end of the book, the teen
summarizes how it happened: "It didn't take long to immerse myself in
the lifestyle.

Didn't take long for school to go [down the drain]; for friendships
and dedication to family to falter. Didn't take long to become a
slave to the monster."

Megan te Boekhorst is a Chilliwack secondary Grade 12 student