Respond to the following classmate posts in 100-150 words;

      “one or both parents engage in problem drinking.” 

      Environmental factors are

      “family related characteristics, such as family functioning, parenting practices, and child maltreatment, as well as other contextual factors, such as peer influences, substance availability, and consumption opportunities.” (Thatcher & Clark, 2008)

      Some circumstances that further exacerbate environmental risk factors for adolescents developing an alcohol or substance use disorder include, parental conflict, inadequate supervision and discipline, parental divorce, inadequate communication between parent and adolescent, and whether or not the adolescent’s parents and/or siblings consume alcohol or other drugs. (Essau et al., 2008 pps 122- 123)  The home life of an adolescent is not the only focus of the environmental risk factors. Negative interpersonal relationships and repeated social problems, and poor academic functions can also play a role in substance abuse and dependence in adolescents.(Essau et al., 2008 pp 69)

      This information has helped me to better understand how important parental influence and a safe, loving, and supportive home is for a child. Knowing these specific factors is also useful in that it can shed some insight on how to be proactive in safeguarding an adolescent from potentially developing an alcohol or substance use disorder. Studies have shown that children who have parents with a diagnosed substance use disorder happen to abuse tobacco earlier, have increased rates of illicit drug use, and exhibit symptoms of substance use disorders. (Thatcher & Clark, 2008) This information has shown me that the development and progression of alcohol use disorders and substance use disorders typically begin at a very young age, and many environmental factors come into play.

      I think that children of people with substance use disorders not only have the heredity factors, but the environmental as well. If a child grows up in an alcoholic home, then the “norm” established for that child is that adults consume alcohol. So having both categories of risk factors farther increases that child’s risk, but both they and the parents may not understand how great the risk is, because that is what they have been conditioned to consider “normal”. Studies have shown that parents who use or abuse alcohol are more likely to allow their adolescent children to use alcohol. The adolescents who were more likely to engage in binge drinking were the children of parents who were permissive of alcohol use.(Essau et al., 2008)

      In order to address differences in perceptions of risk for “safe or commonly used drugs” with adolescents I believe that targeted prevention and education would be the way to go. Adolescents has been described as the

       “critical period of addiction vulnerability.” (Thatcher & Clark, 2008)

      It would be helpful to encourage healthy communication between parents and children. Because behavioral and emotional issues within the adolescent population have been linked with alcohol and substance use disorder,(Essau et al., 2008)  I think that targeting those specific populations and educating them on the dangers of substance use. When I was an adolescent, scare tactics were used in an attempt to stop us from using or abusing substances. We were not educated in how adolescents are more likely to develop an SUD due to developmental changes happening within us. It was not explained to us that home life, abuse, neglect, and heredity all played parts in the development of these disorders. I think that being honest and truthful with our youth is the best way to address this growing issue and the misconceptions surrounding the development of substance use disorders.

References

Essau, C. (2008). Chapter Three. In Adolescent addiction: Epidemiology, assessment, and treatment. essay, Academic Press.

Thatcher, D. L., & Clark, D. B. (2008). Adolescents at risk for substance use disorders: Role of psychological dysregulation, endophenotypes, and environmental influences. Alcohol research & health : the journal of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Retrieved February 21, 2022, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3860456/

 

2)The author has often heard people rail against the war on drugs and argue that all narcotics should be legal throughout America. People making this argument seem oblivious to the children. The author would not want to raise children in a community infested with highly addictive drugs such as crack, opioids, and crystal methamphetamines. This always seems the fundamental strategic impediment to the legalization of drugs.

People arguing that softer drugs should be legal or at least decriminalized also seem oblivious to the children. The evidence that softer drugs are gateway drugs to harder drugs is irrefutable (Essau, 2008). The problem in America at present is that softer drugs are being forsaken entirely and people are starting off with harder drugs such as opioids, or they are progressing through the softer drugs so rapidly that the effect is essentially the same.

There are no safe drugs when it comes to children and adolescents. Fully matured adults may have the discipline and wisdom to use drugs recreationally, but adolescents were not fully matured and often lack this capacity (Bukstein, 2019). They are more prone to take excessive risk, and less able to assess and overcome the consequences of risk. Adolescents and children are often severely addicted to narcotics before they even fully comprehend what has fully happened. It is also true that the harder drugs have much stronger addiction profiles in terms of their physiological and psychological effects (APA, 2013). People are able to rehabilitate from alcohol or marijuana, for instance, at much higher rates than opioids or crystal methamphetamines. The rehabilitation rates for opioids are especially discouraging, with relapse rates for rehabilitated individuals at least 50% higher than for all other substances (

It is very difficult to discuss these topics with adolescents. They often hear, but do not truly listen. Many adolescents do not even hear. They think their parents are being stodgy curmudgeons or simply cowards and that the problems that millions of adults have experienced pursuant to drug use will not apply to them. Drug use seems to be one of those things where dogmatic warnings and finger waving accomplish little. If a person has raised the child functionally, inculcating a good self-concept, autonomy, initiative, etc., then the child has a much better chance of resisting the temptation of drugs. Yet the sad truth is that even optimal rearing is no certain prophylactic against drug experimentation and eventual addiction (Bukstein, 2019).

A final note would be that heroin and opiates became widely available in all areas of America for the first time in history immediately after America invaded Afghanistan and it geared up its opium production with U.S. protection. It is left to the reader to connect the dots. It is farcical that America purported to wage a war on drugs while massive armies deployed to the Middle East guarded the very crops that were producing the opioids that are destroying an entire generation. A secondary aspect of this phenomenon is the fact that big Pharma was allowed to widely disseminate strong synthetic opioids. Only a fool would believe that they did not anticipate a crossover effect from illegal opioid users. The war on drugs must, unfortunately, be a war upon our own political establishment and pharmaceutical companies, but Americans simply do not have the stomach for this.  

 

References

American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). American Psychiatric Publishing.

Bukstein, O. (2019). Treating adolescents with substance use disorders. Guilford.

Essau, C. (2008). Adolescent addiction: Epidemiology, assessment, and treatment. Academic Press.

 

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