Teenagers and Drugs

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NAME = TAHERA BEGUM

FORM = 10U

TEACHER =

    They come in different shapes, sizes and forms, and can cost anything from your weekly pocket money to the thousands.  As controversial and political as this maybe, as a society we are facing a new age war of DRUGS and all the consequences it brings with it.  Our primary aim for the last half term was not only to extend our own personal knowledge about drugs, but also to delve deeper into this issue, and explore the feelings of people involved in this business and the people hurt or effected by it.

    Teenagers as a whole are seen as a completely different species to the rest of the human race.  This is due to all the stereotyping and assumption based on supposedly typical adolescent behaviour.  The way society views certain types of people or groups plays a large role, as this image can be a permanent one.  One aspect, which has really stood out, is the fact that society always seems to view and label the extremes.  What I mean by that is a teenager in many peoples point of view can never be normal or in between.  They are either:

ROUGH, RUDE STREETWISE, DRUGGIE TYPES

or

GEEKY, WEIRD, HIGH ACADEMIC ACHIEVERS

    Whichever way you look at both descriptions, they are characteristics, which can outcast you in society, and as a whole has the ability to outcast teenagers, as these are the images they are stuck with.  Nevertheless, the out-casting of teenagers may seem like a very harsh and surreal outcome but in actual fact it often is the case in most British societies.

    It is a well-known fact that during the so-called teenage period, it is common for this age group to experiment with things and try to find their own individuality.  However, the problem with teenagers ‘’finding their true identity’’ is that it is often expressed in strong visual displays of grungers, gothic, punks and body piercing.  This is 90% of the time rejected by society, as it doesn’t follow the normal sensible dress code of everyday life.  Again this adds to the image of them as a whole.

    On the other hand the labelling and image which teenagers receive is ironically influence by teenagers themselves.  I mean, just because teenagers have a hard time with the stereotype, at the same time teenagers have to understand that these conclusions were based upon past behaviour and experience that they them selves inflicted, and is only the result of a lack of communication among the older and younger generations.  So either way the labelling of teenagers by society is justifiable but not necessarily acceptable.

    Teenagers are associated with many things.  But below I have written a sample of the not so pleasant things adolescents are apparently attached with:

  • Technology (internet hacking)
  • Street violence (vandalism, muggings, petty theft, robbery’s, fights)
  • Underage sex  teenage pregnancy’s
  • Drugs (both illegal and legal drugs)
  • Big gangs
  • Eating disorder
  • Raves/party’s

Out of all of the above there are reasons for the associations.  Below are reasons to why teenagers may be associated with street violence and eating disorders:

  • Street violence’s such as vandalism and mugging is usually a crime linked with youth.  This is because police statistics show that the majority of people who carry out street violence’s are people who hang around on the streets a lot, and the most obvious groups are teenagers.  However, unfair this may sound, it is an actual fact.  So basically teenagers are linked with street violence’s because they often cause them.
  • Eating disorders is also high among the list of what teenagers are linked with.  The main reason for this is because teenagers are hormonally more prone to be paranoid about their image as their body is changing very fast.  Although an eating disorder is a mental thing, it has physical effects.  The main source for this paranoia is due to the ‘’perfect body’’ image, which magazines portray.  Teenagers are the main victims of eating disorders but adults do suffer from this as well, however teenagers are more acknowledged with this problem.
  • One of the main reasons why teenagers are associated with the above problems is mainly due to the MEDIA.  The media is a very powerful manipulative source of information which the public have access to through television, radio, internet, magazines, newspapers, advertisements, leaflets, brochures.  The reason why I say it is manipulative is that it portrays things in black and white, for example when it shows street violence or eating disorders (or any other of the problems I mentioned) it always has a teenage face to front the article or the television show.  Which is extremely unfair as the media can be very biased and they have the influence to form other peoples opinion based on what’s been said in the media.
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    So over all, as human beings it is human nature to categorise things, and teenagers, just like homosexuality, interracial children/couples and divorcees fall under certain categories.  And with each category comes a certain image.  Yes it’s unfair, and yes it should be changed, but by stereotyping and categorising, this helps people understand what’s going on in the world and what kind of people populate it.

    For one of the lessons, we had to do a drugs brainstorm of all the types of drugs we know. What was really strange was that, all the drugs ...

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