One of the most liked trends of teenagers in high schools in America were alcohol use and cigarette smoking, but the trends have changed and alcohol use and cigarette smoking has gone pretty low, but on the other hand there is a very steep rise of students using drugs like OxyContin is rising, as well as sedative abuse in 26 years.
The researchers had questionnaires and they were asking the students as to whether they have used tranquilizers, barbiturates or sedatives for non-medical use in the last year, about 14 percent of the high school seniors, 11 percent of the 10th graders and about 7 percent of the 8th graders responded in yes.
The figures are going on a rise with high school seniors and about 7.2 percent of them had used sedatives without a prescription in the last year, which has gone up from low of 2.8 percent in 1992. There were about 5.5 percent of the seniors who reported using OxyContin, which is a potent pain killer up from 4 percent in 2002.
OxyContin is a drug that is being taken to relieve severe pain and the drug has a great potential for overdose as well as for creating dependence.
It is another report it was noted that the prescription drugs were much more widely available than the illegal drugs. It was also noted that the kids who are growing up in this day and age are seeing prescription drugs for performance enhancement, there are drugs that can help to focus better in school, as well as to stay awake for long hours and calm one down during anxiety or depressive episodes.
The drugs are being marketed at a very huge scale and everyone just knows about their potential and their effects and this makes people aware of the product at a very large scale.
It is not only that people are using illegal drugs, they are also using legal drugs for illegal use.
The study was conducted on the students going to public and private schools and it was found that the number of students using steroids or marijuana was at a steady figure, but the figures were going high for students using the sedatives or pain killers, which have morphine in them.
To name a few drugs, which are increasingly used by teenagers are Ambien, Oxycontin and inhalants.
The other big issue that needs to be dealt with is that there are other forms of illicit drugs that are entering the market such as Ecstasy, the prescription drugs on the other hand are being made by the pharmaceutical companies, but no one exactly knows as to where the Ecstasy is being made and what harmful effects it bears. So this all needs to be really looked into as to what are the measures that can be taken to handle such a widespread use of illicit drug abuse in the teenage children. This is a pretty serious issue and requires serious attention.
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