How can the american people help more with the stop of teenage drinking and drug usage in america?

Answer 1

I give a lot of credit to the 12-step programs for helping those with addictions of various kinds. But what we really need is prevention, not simply cure, and for that, kids need two basic things: (1) facts, not emotional pleas but facts, about drugs and alcohol, and (2) other things to do to occupy their time and engage their interest.

Much of it has to do with certain cliques that treat getting drunk or stoned as "cool," and poison whole schools with their attitude. The sober ones tend to be religious, which is fine for those who are religious, but leaves everyone else out in the cold.

So activities and clubs and people to hang out with that do not revolve around either the drunk and/or stoned crowd or the holier-than-thou crowd are clearly necessary. I enjoyed meeting a group of interesting young people at the opening of a new game store recently; kids who like to think, and don't like to mess up their thinking with booze or drugs. There are people who get hooked on history reenactments, or have sports as a focus, or music or art, and they need to be encouraged and sponsored.

Fact is, a kid can avoid the downhill slope if he or she wants to, and having members of the opposite sex involved in something more wholesome is probably still the most enticing magnet for most teens. Hormones are hormones, after all!

Answer 2

Making the consequences stiffer does not really help. I started drinking when I was 14. By the time I was 16 I had been arrested 4 times for underage drinking and had been put in 3 locked down hospitals for chemical abuse. I was under house arrest for a year and a ward of the court. And that was 10 years ago. The penalties are really high already. There really is not much you can do. Better education does not really help. It is a matter, I think, of fitting in more then anything. I knew it was wrong. Just like adults know it is bad for their health to smoke. Making it legal would not help matters either. That is ridiculous. I can only imagine what I would of ended up like if it would of been legal for me to drink every damn night. I would not be here right now. I would probably be dead. The government may increase taxes on liquor and smokes...but it will not deter the eager teenager from experimenting. As long as it is ok for us adults to smoke and drink and live it up....then in their eyes....whats wrong with their having a little fun too? You see...there is no end. It is a vicious circle.

Answer 3

The curiousity should be quenched. If the teen wants to know how it feels to get drunk or use drugs, then provide a controlled environment for the teen to learn why such is illegal.

Try forcing a teen to drink the full keg of beer alone to learn to drink responsibly. Kid wants a smoke? Get him/her the strongest stuff that will easily make a person severely sick.

Teens are only wondering why they should not drink. Better consequences need to be provided. Teens need to learn what true responsibility really is.

Unfortunately, the real consequence of drinking and drugs have take too long for curiousity to explain and too lethal.

Answer 4

My nephew died of Alcohol overdose at the age of 16. They got the Liquor bottle at a neighborhood liquor store. He was drinking at a home that had adults present and did not do anything about it.
First you have to report any alcohol drinking by minors, if you know of any parties where minors are drinking report it to the police. Turn in any stores that you know of that do not ask for identification when someone young looking is buying alcohol and not being carded. Next, any adult that is present when minors are drinking and does not do anything about it and the result of the minor drinking causes death to that minor or any other person, then those adults who where present should be charged for failure to act or for the deaths that occur.

Answer 5

Hold the teen and their parents accountable for the actions. Make the consequences stiffer, and broader, including the parents and I bet a lot more parents will be able to tell you what their children are doing and whom they are doing it with. Right now most teens are on their own, with their parents feeling like they aren't responsible for the actions of the teen, with the teen feeling and acting like a little adult.

Answer 6

Put higher tax for alcohol purchase.
Increase the price of alcohol.
Have people who used to be addicted to drug come to high school and junior high to share their bad consequences from using drugs

Answer 7

No stopping curiosity. Teach responsibility and which drugs capture your soul and which ones give you the munchies

Answer 8

MAKE IT LEGAL
MAKE IT LEGAL
MAKE IT LEGAL
As a teen I know we only really to it to rebel, but after a while, its for the "feel"