GROUP REPORT

This report will focus on the impact of drug abuse on youths.

1. Introduction
Drug abuse is the misuse of the drug for the wrong purposes. Often drugs are abused to satisfy drug abusers’ craving for pleasure, excitement, and ease of pain or problem. Over-intake of the drug will to lead drug abusers highly rely on the drug. Drug abusers will find it harder to quit as they have high craving for the effect of drugs. However, these drug causes harm to the body which will leads to many negative impacts.

2. Cause factors
Many factors can influence youths to abuse drug. These factors can categories into internal and external factors.

2.1 Internal factors
Teenagers are unable to judge for themselves as they may not have the sufficient knowledge on drugs. With this, they are likely to be influence by friends/family who is drug abusers. On top of that, some teenagers are conformist, they are desire to try thing that make them look cool or fashion. They are also fearless, bold and high risk taker as they are willing to try anything even if it causes harm their body.

2.2 External factors
Teenagers may abuse drug due to relationships’ problems like family, friends. Teenagers may want to attract attention when their parents inconsistent on their parental discipline. Teenagers may also want to find relieve by taking drug as it causes them to be high and forget what they face in reality. In short, drugs allow them to escape from the reality.

All these factors can cause a teenager to abuse drugs.

3.1 Neurological impacts
Neurological impact refers to the effect on nerves and the nervous system. Long-term use of drug will damage the drug abusers’ nerves and nervous system, brain. This will cause them to have panic attacks, weak memory, flashback, confusion, poor concentration, and seizure.

Panic attacks are one of the neurological impacts that commonly occurred with anxiety disorders and other psychological conditions, drug abusers will experience sudden trembling, shortness of breath, chest pain, sweating, nausea, dizziness, light-headedness or sensations of choking, smothering or feeling nothing is real. Drug abusers will experience weak memory and flashback like unable to recall past experience or remember it vividly. Drug abusers often live in confusion and reaction time was slower. Added on to this, drug abusers will have poor learning ability and concentration, which will affect youth drug abusers’ studies as they have loss the ability to focus and study. Drug abusers will have face problem in making decision.


The most import neurological impacts are seizures, stroke and various brain damage. Seizures occurred due to the sudden, abnormal electrical activity in the brain like clusters of nerve cells, or neurons, in the brain send out the wrong signals. Drug abusers will have strange sensations and emotions, behave strangely, violent muscle spasms, or lose consciousness. Seizure may cause high fevers, head injuries and certain diseases.

Examples of drugs caused neurological impact are cocaine, inhalants, marijuana, methamphetamine, nicotine, prescription stimulants and rohypnol.

3.2 Physical Appearance and Grooming

The impacts on the physical appearance and grooming are especially important to youth. The marks left by these impacts on physical appearance can follow the youths throughout their lives.

Drug abuse can lead to deterioration on the abuser’s appearance. Drug abusers tend put on and loss weight easily. Impacts commonly shown on their face will be, blushing face, bloodshot or watery eyes, dilated pupils, hair loss, worsening dark-circles under eyes, spots or sores around the mouth area, tiredness and lastly, increasing bad skin problems. Drug intake can lead to the body dehydrating causing skin problems to worsen. Wrinkle and sagging of skin will become visible leading to one appearing older than usual.

Needle marks will also be able to be spotted on the lower arm, leg or on the underside of the feet. They will lose the ability of proper coordination of their hands and legs, causing walking speed to slower down and they will tend to stumble. Their hands and legs will shake unknowingly too.

Drug abusers will look sicklier than before. They will encounter frequent vomiting, sore throat, running nose, dizzy spells and coughing. Their speech pattern changes and tends to speak faster or slower than normal. Speech problem can worsen to the extent of inaudible speech.

Drug abuse can also lead to grooming and personal hygiene problem. They will become neglect their person cleanliness, and move around untidy and filthy. They will lose the habit of regular shower and brushing of their teeth. They will wear sunglasses or long sleeved shirts or collar shirts at inappropriate times.

These not only serve as a description of the physical appearance and grooming of drug abusers, it also serve as a warning sign to parents.

3.3 Behavioral and Emotional impact
Drug abusing can result to the change of the abusers’ behavior and emotion. First of all, their eating patterns changes. From the drug addict, there will be a visible weight gain or loss due the increase or loss in appetite respectively. Their sleeping patterns varies as well as such, they will sleep or be awake at odd times. Besides, they will feel worn-out and lethargic all the time and often complain of tiredness.

As for emotionally, a sudden mood change is often natural. Some examples of mood swings includes being oversensitive, temper tantrums, moodiness, irritably, or nervousness. Other than that, generally, there is a lack of motivation or interest and energy in whatever they do, and low self-esteem in them. Drug abusing can actually cause or worsen mental disorders. These negative effects include depression, anxiety disorders, hallucination and poorer judgments.

Drug abuse can lead to a change in overall attitude or personality and even lifestyles which causes them to be a totally different person. Thus, it will be good that the people around pay more attention to teenagers who are addicted to drugs in order to avoid anything terrible from occurrence before it is too late.

3.4 Social Impact
Drugs will really cause a very great social impact because they are very harmful and destructive. Drugs are harmful because they cause negative effects on people and the people around them. When drugs are being consumed, those people will tend to lose control of themselves, becomes over- reliant on them, and drugs may want their life too. When teenagers take drugs, it will affect their growth, their behavior, attitude, etc. So it is very dangerous and silly to take drugs.

When they lose control, they will create a bad influence to people around them by their acts. Thus, this will affect the society as other people especially teenagers (their peers) will follow what they doing. Their attitude towards studies will also change as they will lose the interest in studies and eventually they will quit their school and unable to complete their studies. By not completing their studies, the government will lose a potential citizen who plays a part in the future.

The teenager will also derive pleasure in taking risks and experimenting with new things. He craves to taste those drugs to attain recognition and status amongst his peers. Such a behavior often brings him in open or concealed conflict with their parent who leads to the much discussed 'conflict of generations' and 'generation gap'. Such situation has been further complicated due to the fast paced social transformation brought in the society by rapid industrialisation, urbanisation and rural-urban migration. It has eroded the traditional, informal, social control mechanisms and has even brought in changes in the structure of the family, from joint to nuclear, or at best an extended family. Those mentioned above are the causes to the society.

3.5 Economic Impacts
The significance of the economic impact of drug abuse is great on businesses whose employees abuse drugs. Although most of the drug abusers are unemployed, those who are working put others at risk. Economically, those businesses who employ drug abusers, are affected as the drug abusers sometimes steal cash, supplies, equipment and products that can be sold to get money to buy drugs to fulfill their hunger for drugs. Moreover, absenteeism, lost productivity and increased use of medical and insurance benefits by employees who abuse drugs affect a business financially.

The economic consequences of drug abuse, especially methamphetamine, severely burden federal, state, and local government resources, ultimately the taxpayer. The creations of methamphetamine in the laboratories put at risk the safety of citizens and adversely affect the environment. Because of the production of methamphetamine, those citizens who live at or near the site, have been seriously injured or even killed. The usage of methamphetamine also cause the user to abuse, neglect and abandon their children, adding to the social services cost, have to receive extensive medical treatment. Some others also commit a host of other crimes which include domestic violence, assaults, burglary, and identity theft.

Every business, regardless of size or location, is infected to the countless problems that alcohol and drug abuse can cause. Most individuals who abuse drugs, when employed, they dun leave their problems outside the doors.

Small businesses are most vulnerable when it comes to workplace substance abuse and are at a big disadvantage because they are less likely to have programs in place to combat the problem, yet they are more likely to be the “employer-of-choice” for illicit drug users.

4. BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Focus Adolescent Services. (n.d.). Drugs and Teen Substance Abuse. Retrieved January 2, 2008, from

http://www.focusas.com/SubstanceAbuse.html.

2. Helpguide organisation. (n.d.).Drug Abuse and Addiction: Understanding the signs,

symptoms, and effects. Retrieved December 24, 2007, from http://www.helpguide.org/mental/drug_substance_abuse_addiction_signs_effects_treatment.htm.

3. Of drugs and youth (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://www.streetdirectory.com/travel_guide/4783/kids_and_teens/of_drugs_and_youth.html

4. MedlinePlus.(n.d.).Drug Abuse. Retrieved January 29, 2008, from

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/drugabuse.html.

5. National Drug Intelligence Center.(January 2006.).National Drug Threat Assessment

2006, The Impact of Drug on Society. Retrieved January 29, 2008, from http://www.usdoj.gov/ndic/pubs11/18862/impact.htm.

6. National Youth Network. (n.d.). Teenage substance abuse: What are the symptoms of substance abuse ?

Retrieved January 4, 2008, from http://www.nationalyouth.com/substanceabuse.html.

7. Nixon, R.M. (1972). The social impact of drug dependence and drug-induced behavior. Retrieved from January

30, 2008, from http://www.drugtext.org/library/reports/duapip/pip3.htm.

8. Phoenix House. (n.d.). Signs and Symptoms. Retrieved January 5, 2008, from

http://www.phoenixhouse.org/NewYork/DrugFacts/drugfacts_symptoms.html.

9. Roxanne, D.E. ( June 6, 2007). Teen drug abuse. Retrieved January 4, 2008, from

http://www.medicinenet.com/teen_drug_abuse/article.htm.

10. SACS Consulting and Investigation Service. (n.d.). Effects of substance buse/chemicaldependency on the user.

Retrieved January 24, 2008, from
http://www.sacsconsulting.com/book/chapter4.htm.

Joan's biblio

Focus Adolescent Services. (n.d.). Drugs and Teen Substance Abuse. Retrieved January 2, 2008, from http://www.focusas.com/SubstanceAbuse.html

Phoenix House. (n.d.). Signs and Symptoms. Retrieved January 5, 2008, from http://www.phoenixhouse.org/NewYork/DrugFacts/drugfacts_symptoms.html



4. Amanda's Biblography
http://www.streetdrugs-university.org/amember/sduniversity%20intro/index_files/Page1916.htm http://www.usdoj.gov/ndic/pubs11/18862/impact.htm

1. MedlinePlus.(n.d.).Drug Abuse. Retrieved January 29, 2008, from http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/drugabuse.html.
2. National Drug Intelligence Center.(January 2006.).National Drug Threat Assessment 2006, The Impact of Drug on Society. Retrieved January 29, 2008, from http://www.usdoj.gov/ndic/pubs11/18862/impact.htm

Attention !
These are tasks to be completed for week 12 E-learning. Hence, they are not related to the main report.
After doing research on the topic of impacts of drug abuse on youths, these are the URLs that i have found related to the topic:
1) http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/drugabuse.html,
2) http://www.childwelfare.gov/can/impact/types/emotional.cfm

And from these websites that i found, i learnt that there are many different kinds of impacts caused by drug abuse. for eg. social and emotional impacts. there are also many kinds of symptoms to detect whether a person has been abused by drugs anot. And the symptoms are as follow:

Shows sudden changes in behavior or school performance

Has not received help for physical or medical problems brought to the parents' attention

Has learning problems (or difficulty concentrating) that cannot be attributed to specific physical or psychological causes

Is always watchful, as though preparing for something bad to happen

Lacks adult supervision

Is overly compliant, passive, or withdrawn

Comes to school or other activities early, stays late, and does not want to go home
Amanda

Hi friends,

I thought of something for our group report. Would it be possible to ask each group member to talk about an impact caused by drug abuse. Thus, everyone can contribute to it. Like previously, I mention about emotional impact, I will elaborate on it.

Thought of the layout. Feel free to edit/change. I will talk about the introduction and emotion impact, to star the ball rolling. It will be good to fill in this layout. Then we can just print this for our group report.

It will be good that, each of us do their own citation and post it here.
Introduction – what is drug abuse?
Reason of taking drug
Common drugs being abused
Impact of drug
1. Neurological impact (Jieying)
2. Physical Appearance and grooming (Celestine)
3. Behavioral and Emotional impact (Joan)
4. Social Impacts (Vincent)
5. Economic Impacts (Amanda)

Conclusion

-jieying

Topic: Discuss the impact of drugs abuse on youthsURLs that I chosen are http://www.medicinenet.com/teen_drug_abuse/article.htm http://www.helpguide.org/mental/drug_substance_abuse_addiction_signs_effects_treatment.htm

From the research and URLs that I did, I find that those youths who abused drugs will be affected emotionally and physically. With both impacts (emotionally and physically) leads to social impacts.

Personally, I find that emotionally impacts are crucial as compared to the rest. Youths who abused drugs often experience hallucinations, anxiety, depression, mood swing and outbursts in anger. Because of this impact, they are unlikely to be able to judge for themselves on what is best or harmful for the. They are likely to reject the truth when someone is trying talking some sense into them. With this, young abusers will not quit abusing easily and may even cause them to lose their life in the long run.

-jieying

these are the URL resources that i have chosen:
1. http://www.nationalyouth.com/substanceabuse.html
2. http://www.safeyouth.org/scripts/facts/substance.asp

Drug abuse affects a person physically and mentally, is the common knowledge that everyone will have. Hence, more help should be given to youths addicted to drugs, and not let their dependence on drug deteriorates, affecting their future.

From the researches i have made, one of it did state symptoms of drug abuse such that it will allow us to use it as a guideline to notice any youth drug addict in the mist of our social circle.

There is a broad range of symptoms to identify possible drug addicts. One who abuse drug will cause a change in their personality unknowingly. For example, the change in their schools lifestyle can that they will skip school, pay lesser attention to the quality of their work and become less discplined. These will then cause a drop in their grades.

Drugs will also cause a change in thier behaviour such as unusual flare-ups or outbreaks of temper which will cause them to offend people more easily. These will build up barrier between they and their friends and slowly, they will be reluctant to see or talk to their friends. Also, the increase in secretiveness will cause them to isolate themselves resulting in a lost of friends and end up only having other drug abusers as friends.

Youth stage being the most active part of everyone's life, once addicted to drug, one will lose interest in their favourite hobbies, pastime and pursuits. Their physical appearance will also deteriorates causing them having to wear sunglasses at inappropriate times and long-sleeved garments even in hot weathers.

As money is required for them to purchase drug hence unusual borrowing signs from friends, co-workers or parents, will appear. they will also have a tendency to steal small items from employer, home or school.

Drug abusers will show sudden jitteriness, nervousness or aggression. And, they will face difficulty in concentration.

With the above signs, one can be suspected of abusing drug and we must pay more attention to them.

Drug addict are categorises into 3 categories: use, abuse and dependence. Hopefully, the guidelines can allow us to rescue drug addicted friends, before they deteriorates into dependence stage.


-Celestine Tay-

URLS:
http://www.focusas.com/SubstanceAbuse.html
http://www.phoenixhouse.org/NewYork/DrugFacts/drugfacts_addiction.html

Teens resort to drug abuse for many reasons. Some may use drugs out of curiosity or to “reduce stress”.

Those addicted to drugs will be affected physically, psychologically and their relations family. The usage of drugs is often linked with a range of negative consequences which include the increased risk of poor judgment which may put the drug addicts at risk for accidents, violence, and suicide.

Some example of physical impact includes:

• Poor physical coordination
• Red and glazed eyes
• Wobbly hands, feet or head.
• Nausea or excessive sweating

Some example of psychological impact includes:

• General lack of interest
• Low self-esteem
• Depression
• Mood swings

JOAN LIM =)



Topic: Discuss the impact of drug abuse on youths. I choose to this URL http://www.streetdirectory.com/travel_guide/4783/kids_and_teens/of_drugs_and_youth.html From the website, i learn that drug is reallu very harmful and destructive. Drugs are harmful because they will cause negative effects on people when they are being consumed. Those people will tend to lose control of themself, relys on them, and drugs may that they life too. So it is very dangerous and silly to take drugs. When teenagers took drugs, it will affect their growth, their behaviour, attitute, etc. The teenager will also derives pleasure in taking risks and experimenting with new things. He craves to taste those drugs to attain recognition and status amongst his peers. Such a behaviour often brings him in open or concealed conflict with his parents which leads to the much discussed 'conflict of generations' and 'generation gap'. Such situation has been further complicated due to the fast paced social transformation brought in the society by rapid industrialisation, urbanisation and rural-urban migration. It has eroded the traditional, informal, social control mechanisms and has even brought in changes in the structure of the family, from joint to nuclear, or at best an extended family.Those which i mention are the causes to the society.

Vincent -_-


Good Day !!
My group will be discussing the impact of drugs abuse on youths.
Hahas.. Hee hee.. Hehex... Whakaka..
HoHoHo ~ Merry Christmas (over) and a Happy New Year (over)... !!! ^0^
Vincent ^0^

Gong Xi Fa Da Cai...
Kuai Gao Zhang Da...
Xue Yue Jing Bu..
Nian Nian You Yu (fish), You Xia (prawn), You Pang Xie(crab).. -_-