Mrs.Carters
HRE 2O1
December 5/12
The Homeless Turning for Drugs
Studies have shown that homeless youth on the streets suffer from drug addiction. The article Giving up on drugs: homeless younge people and self reported problematic drug use by Keys, Mallet, and Rosenthal, identifies the different issues homeless youth have to deal with. The research has been conducted through a series of interviews with young homeless kids from the age of 12 to 19. The kids interviewed talk about why they got into drugs, how they ended up living on the streets, and what they believe options for giving up drugs are. The common reason young people turn to drugs is because they experience abuse in their homes, they end up getting involved with the wrong crowd, and they want to escape their problems.
Firstly, many cases of young drug abusers start from abusive parents. The parents will either treat them badly through their words, cause physical harm to them, or are simply never home. Parent abuse leads to depression, and can make children feel worthless. Many kids with abusive parents run away and live with another parent or guardian, or a foster home. Sometimes the foster care doesn’t work and the kids end up living on the street. This is a problem because they have no money or no food. In the situation with Jamie, because he was homeless and had no money, he had to work as a drug dealer and committed other crimes such as car theft and assault.
Secondly, these young drug abusers start to use drugs to fit in with a certain crowd. Young kids who start to get involved with the wrong crowds start to use drugs or become drug dealers. Also in many situations these kids do drugs to become more popular and make many friends. Their friends influence them to start to use drugs. In the situation with Adam he knew Dillon 2 what he was going to get into when he would hang out with these certain crowds. But he decided to hang out with them anyways and didn’t try to avoid them, so he did drugs even though he knew it would affect his grade in school.
Many times youth lead up to drug use because they feel that they need to so that they can forget about their problems and have a little fun. Phoebe of 19 years old experiences drugs as a form of a social life. She wasn’t happy in her life so she would turn to smoking marijuana with her friends. The social drug use eventually became an addiction. Sometimes, these young people are so unhappy with themselves that they feel like they want to commit suicide. In the case of Jamie, he felt that it was either he chose to do drugs or kill him. Although he tried to kill himself, he was saved, but his drug use continued.
In conclusion adults should be more aware of this drug issue that young kids are facing, because it is a serious issue and these young kids should be avoiding drugs to be their solution. Young homeless people start to do drug because of family abuse, to fit in a certain crowd, and to escape their issues. This is a serious social justice issue and can be avoided if these young kids get special care for them
Dillon 3
Work cited
KEYS, DEBORAHMALLETT, SHELLEYROSENTHAL, DOREEN. "Giving Up On Drugs: Homeless Young People And Self-Reported Problematic Drug Use." Contemporary Drug Problems 33.1 (2006): 63. Advanced Placement Source. Web. 4 Dec. 2012.
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