Essay On Drugs In Adulthood

“According to national datasets, the prevalence of alcohol, tobacco and other drug use increases rapidly from early to late adolescence, peaks during transition to young adulthood, and declines through the remainder of adulthood” (Griffin & Botvin, 2011, p. 2). Basically, drug use is very popular during adolescence. For most people it starts to decrease during adulthood. For others early use of drugs contributes to use and abuse later in life. What within the adolescent and young adulthood stages of life makes drug usage so popular but not in adulthood? This can probably be contributed to many reasons.
First reason can be because of simple independence. This stage is when kids are coming into their own. They are now able to make certain decisions for themselves that does not involve their parents. This level of independence makes them feel that they are mature and can make the best choices for themselves. They make the choice to use substances because they may feel they are mature enough to handle it. When in all actuality they are not able to handle it. Oftentimes adolescents choose to take substances to feel or appear more like an adult. One privilege and sign of becoming an adult is when one turns twenty one and is legally able to drink. Someone can misguidedly come to the conclusion that drinking alcohol means they are
Some adolescents are not aware of all of the risk that comes with substance use. They do not know all of the effects that each drug will have on them cognitively, physically and emotionally. As they get older they gain more knowledge about drugs and their effects. They are able to assess the risks and determine that substances are not worth their health. They are not able to assess whether the rewards of taking drugs are worth the risks. Also some adolescents are not able to evaluate the bigger picture of how drugs are going to affect all aspects of their lives in the present and in the