Drugs used among students/teenagers
Drugs are the common problems in all develop country. Including Malaysia, drugs has contributes to the social change in our community. Drugs user always related to the crime, violence and deviance. Research also shows adolescence that used drugs will turn to unusual or different behaviour from usual, anger towards others, mood swings, drop in school, and dropping out of regular activities, for example sport.
There are lot types of drug in our market. The most famous among students are Ecstasy, Marijuana, Syabu, Special K and many more. Each of the drugs gave different satisfaction to the user. Ecstasy can give happiness and energy if the user wanted to enjoy the music in a party. While marijuana more to the inner satisfaction like you feel calm, enjoy to laughed and feel relaxed.
Most students don't think that they will become addicted, and simply use drugs to have a good time or desperate about the next examination. When students become addicted they lose friends, develop health problems, start to fail in school, experience memory loss, lose motivation, and alienate their family and friends with their negative behaviors and often unpredictable emotional swings.
Students who are addicted won't see a problem with their behavior or their drug use. Drugs make them feel good, and can give a way to relieve the stress of school, problems at home, disagreements with friends, and other pressures of growing up. They also can feel the calmness when drugs effect can removed the feeling of nervous. This kind of situation is always applied in the examination or presentation. Other than that, drugs like syabu can give student extra energy to stay up late and more focused in the class.
Because we live in a drug-taking society, the concern about drugs is raising especially when drugs can harm the society and lead to negative effect in our nation. Students are the generation that will lead the country in the future. Therefore, it is very important to ensure and stop the generation from drug abuse. We must look deep in the problem to determine the factors that influence the drug abuse among students. We also must understand the primary effects that leads student to use drug and try to discover where the supplies come from.
Here are some tips from parents, peer and family to know a change about student used drug and the reason.
Why do teenagers use drugs?
Some parents think that young people only use drugs if they are depressed or have problems at home or school. Understanding some of the reasons may help parents to appreciate the many pressures with which teenagers are faced.
Some of the reasons are:
• Ordinary reasons, such as having fun or doing something different
• Availability access to drugs in not necessarily difficult. It’s usually through other young people, friends or older peers
• Curiosity and experimentation, I wanted to see what it was like
• Acceptance by peer group, Most of my friends were doing it
• Rebellion, Because you don’t approve, or said, No
• Depression, I just wanted to feel better
• Confidence and self-esteem, I wanted to feel better about myself
• Relaxation or coping with stress, boredom or pain, All my problems disappeared for a while
• Experience of a high liked the feeling
• Example you set what sort of behaviour do you model? If you use drugs don’t be surprised if your child follows.
Parents who know their children well will notice any sudden change in behaviour that might be a sign that something is wrong.
These changes include:
• unusual or different behaviour from usual
• Silence, sulking, or anger towards others
• Mood swings
• more than usual lack of cooperation and rudeness
• Very little time being with or talking with the family
• Drop in school work, or truancy
• dropping out of regular activities, for example sport
• Change of friends, unexplained or sudden change to a new group of friends
• Changes in physical appearance, for example reddened eyes
• eating problems
• Lack of energy, tired all the time
• Valuable items or money missing at home.
Don’t jump to conclusions! Think about all the possible reasons for a change in behaviour:
• Is it due to a sudden growth spurt, or changes due to puberty?
• Are there problems at school or with friends?
• Are things going on within your family that could be affecting your teenager?
Remember that there are many reasons other than drugs that might be the cause of these changes.