Drug Addition among Young People in Australia(1).docx

Drug Addition among Young People in AustraliaSeptember 20th, 2016Word Count 2412Table of ContentsDrug Addition among Young People in Australia11. Introduction32. Body42.1 Reasons for Australian young peoples drug addiction42.1.1 Developmental factors42.1.2 Environmental factors52.2 Health consequences of drug addiction62.2.1 Change brain functions62.2.2 Health Problems73. Government solutions to tackle drug addiction73.1 Education73.2 Treatment83.3 Law enforcement94. Conclusion9References111. IntroductionIn Australia, the use and abuse of illegal drugs creates an illegal market which is estimated to be worth A$6.7 billion, making it a daunting social, legal and health issue. According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, over 60% percent of Australian people had never used illegal substances, but there were 14.7% of Australians illicit drug were used by those aged at 14 and over in the last year. An increasing number of Australian young people are now addicted to drugs and they are dependent both physically and psychologically on various types of drugs, such as heroin, benzodiazepines, tobacco, cocaine and LSD and magic mushrooms. Drug addiction is complicated and hurtful because it can not only damage young peoples health, but also influence their mental health and social connections. The main purpose of this report is to research drug addiction among Australian young people by proposing three research questions. This report comprises of three main sections with each section dealing with one research question. The first part will identify the reasons for the occurrence drug addiction among young people in Australia. As what follows, it will analyze the health consequences caused by drug addiction. The third section will examine the government solutions to solve drug addiction problem. 2. Body2.1 Reasons for Australian young peoples drug addictionDrug addiction is a chronic disease caused by peoples legal or illegal use of medication and drug over a long period of time. There are many factors leading to drug addiction among young people in Australia, including both developmental factors and environmental factors. 2.1.1 Developmental factorsThe typical age range for drug addiction is between 15 to 30 years old, a stage where people develops the fastest (Collins et al., 2007). Though it is possible for people at any age to get addicted after taking drugs, the earlier the drug use begins, the more likely it proceeds to addiction (Grichting & Barber, 2009). This is particularly true for teens because at their age, brains that make judgment, decisions and control over themselves are still developing. Thus, young people are quite vulnerable to a variety of illegal things, drug use included. It all starts in schools usually teenagers are more prone to try drugs. First it comes psychologically and and then physically from the “want” to “need”. For instance, teenagers may first try drugs just to taste of what is like out of curiosity, experimentation or wanting to take risks (Schachter, 2012). Teenagers are at the age where new things intrigue them and they desire to try new things. It is not that they do not know the consequences of taking drugs, but they cannot help themselves taking the second and third time after taking the first. They are not aware of the power of drugs in getting people addicted and addicted to drug unintentionally. Once taking them, most young people cannot control themselves because their brains are not mature enough for them to battle against the pleasantsensation drug brings to them. But when they get old, drug addiction will have already destroyed them in certain ways. Therefore, young people are addicted to drugs because they are still in a developing period when they cannot control themselves in trying new things and also cannot control once they want to try the second, third time, and finally get addicted to drugs.2.1.2 Environmental factorsExternally speaking, there are may environmental factors which leading to young peoples addiction to drugs, which include pressure from school and parents and influence from their peers.Pressure from schools and parents often cause young people to resort to drugs as a way to relax and relieve themselves. Young people are now placed high expectations by their parents who also impose more pressure on those young peoples academic studies. Schools, as an institution for them to learn, do not implement many activities to help students to release those pressure. According to the National Drug Strategy Household Survey, there were approximately 73% of the adolescents reported heavy stress from parents and academic studies being the major reason for their drug abuse (Maxwell & Davey, 2010). Some of them usually choose a wrong way to solve that. When they use drugs, they may feel better temporarily and continue abusing drugs to keep them being on a constant high state. Hence, many young people in Australia use drugs to act as a short-term fix for the stress and pressure they are under. In addition to pressure from school and parents, there are many young people taking drugs and become addicted due to the influence of their peer groups. As stated by Maxwell and Davey (2010), the biggest group of drug addicts are students in that they first get off their families and they are not under parents control anymore. Giudice (2004) found that young people opt to drugs because they want to fit in to the peer group he or she is, and there is someone or many have already been addicted to drugs. Many youngsters might feel the need to follow whatever their friends are doing and giving into peer pressure in order to fit in and be considered cool enough to be accepted into a social group. This suggests that young people take drugs because the peers are taking them and they do not want to be socially left out. Hence, adolescents try drugs and take them to under the influence of their peer groups.All in all, there are both developmental factors and environmental factors explaining the reasons why Australian young people become addicted to drugs. Due to the fact that young people are at a stage of brain developing, they may have little control over themselves and be curious about new things. Besides, stress from schools and parents and also influence of their peers, can leads to Australian young peoples drug addiction. 2.2 Health consequences of drug addictionThere are some daunting facts about about drug abuse. There are more than 527,000 costly emergency rooms taken up by illicit drug users each year due to drug related problems and 26% of them are young people age between 15 to 30. In addition, more than 1/3 of state prison population increase are drug offenders. Those statistics indicated that the abuse of drug can lead to serious physical and psychological consequences. According to XXX, illegal drug use accounts for 1/4 deaths in Australia. Those who are dependent on drugs are at higher risks of unintentional injuries, accidents, domestic violence, medical problems and death (). The following part identifies three health related consequences of drug addiction including changing of brain functions and health issues, as detailed below. 2.2.1 Change brain functionsUndoubtedly, drugs are chemicals and due to different chemical structures different drug embodies, the effect on the body can also vary. As a matter of fact, some drugs causes changes to a persons body and brain in a ways that last long even if the person stops taking drugs. The change can be permanent. The entrance of drug into human body can also be in a number of different ways, such as inhalation, injection and ingestion. Different methods of drug entering human body also exerts different influences on health. For instance, when drugs are injected, they go directly to the blood stream causing immediate effects while ingestion requires the drug to pass through the digestive system delaying the effects (Hughes et al., 2010). However, although the effects may differ according to different chemical structure and different using method of the drug, the majority of drugs target the brains reward system directly or indirectly by flooding the circuit with dopamine (Maxwell & Davey, 2010). As a neurotransmitter in the brain, dopamine plays the role of regulating movement, emotion and cognition. Thus, when drugs enter the brain, they act on the brain which changes the way brain performs. In a vicious circle, these changes give rise to compulsive drug use, the beginning of addiction. 2.2.2 Health ProblemsThe most far-reaching consequence of drug addiction is that it is in a position to endanger almost every organ in human body. Firstly, the use of drugs can weaken the immune system consequently making the body be more susceptible to infections. Secondly, cardiovascular problems can also be caused by drug addiction, such as abnormal heart rate and even heart attacks. Thirdly, injection of drugs result in collapsed veins and making blood vessels and heart valves easily infected. Fourthly, nausea, vomit and abdominal pain can also result from drug abuse. Fifthly, when taking drugs, the liver will be overloaded to function harder which leads to liver failure or damages to liver. Sixthly, drug addiction also contributes to seizures and stroke. To sum up, health risks that caused by drug addiction include the change of how brain functions in decision-making, emotion and movement; and health problems such as weakening of immune systems, cardiovascular problems, liver failure and stroke. 3. Government solutions to tackle drug addictionWith a growing realization of the severe consequences of drug addiction, the Australian government has undertaken many endeavors to deal with this issue.3.1 EducationThe Australian government has launched sensitive and accurate drug education programs in order to halt drug experiencing among the youth. Those programs place great emphasis on the moral and physical degradation after drug abuse. In schools, there are lectures delivered, usually by gym teachers, with the purpose to prevent young people from trying and taking any illegal drugs. However, to avoid being one-dimensional and achieve measurable results, those programs and lectures are designed to be accurate, factual and in compliance with the listeners personal experiences and observations. As contended by Dingle et al. (2009), a candid educational program, to a large extent, reduces the risk of taking dangerous drugs. From a model education campaign in a high school, the evaluation was detailed that students not only enhanced their factual knowledge about drugs but also raised their cautionary attitude toward drug use. The results also proved that students prefer accounts of ex-addicts of drugs to being passively told by doctors. Composed of approximately 100 related government officials and private agency members, the Australian Institute of Criminology has recently step into the drug education field by spending more than A$ 3.5 million in coaching teachers and counselors in how to teach students to prevent them from taking drugs. It also encourages the explosion of anti drug films and literature as an emphasis to teach young people how to make rational decisions on drugs. 3.2 TreatmentWith respect to the treatment of drug addicts, crisis clinics and therapeutic communities are established by the Australian government to alleviate and cure drug related problems. In many urban areas where there are excessive drug uses, crisis clinics have been established to provide emergent services to drug addicts and troubled youth. The staffs work for those clinics are volunteered youths professionally trained. They are responsible for conveying information on drugs, persuade drug users to drop their behaviors, analyze street samples and get those who are in medical danger to hospitals. Those youths are often involved in the long-run treatment programs and some of them offer personal or group therapy to drug addicts. Therapeutic communities have also been set up exclusively to handle with drug users who may have a character defect. Two common methods are adopted in such treatment, encounter-group therapy and rap session therapy which is a relatively more gentle form. For instance, the users of LSD and some marijuana users, according to Connell et al. (2010), are often found to have underlying psychiatric problems. Thus, those drug users have to be treated by using individual or group therapies which may be used on other mental-health patients. 3.3 Law enforcementIn response to drug abuse, the Australian government enacted numerous tackling policies. Actually, in the 1980s, Australia was one of the first countries to launch the harm minimization policy which comprises of three elements, namely demand reduction, supply reduction and harm reduction (Collins & Lapsley, 2009). The National Drug Strategy contained specific explanations of these three pillars, as detailed in the following:The strategies of supply reduction are to disrupt the manufacturing and production of illicit drugs, aiming to control and regulate the use of illegal substances on market. Related department strictly followed and implemented the policy, involving border security, customs and prosecuted people so as to prohibit the trafficking of illicit drugs. Under demand reduction strategies, the government launches abstinence-oriented treatment to decrease drug use. Harm reduction strategies are actually the supplement of the above two strategies because demand reduction and supply reduction will never be completely sufficient if people have already engaged in risky activities. Thus, the harm resulted from those activities like drug abuse to individual or to the society should be minimized. There were programs such as needle and syringe and safe injection which are aimed to curb the spread of drug related disease or deaths.Thereby, the Australian government has being taking efforts in dealing with drug addiction in terms of education, treatment and law enforcement. 4. ConclusionIn conclusion, this report mainly examines three research questions with regard to the reasons for Australian young peoples drug addiction, health consequences of drug addiction and government solutions in solving drug addiction. The author found that there are two factors, both developmental and environmental ones explaining young peoples drug addiction. Because the brain of young people are usually developing to decide what is right and what is wrong and they are at a stage of curiosity; and because they suffer pressure from their parents and academic studies and due to the influence of their peers who may take drugs, young people are likely to take drugs. Consequently, there are many health related problems can be caused, such as the change of brain functions in controlling emotion and decision making and impact the human organs such as cardiovascular problems, liver failure and stroke. Confronted with the daunting damage to human body and brain, the government have already taken actions in solving drug addiction problems. Educational programs have been launched to