RUNNING HEAD: SOCIAL ISSUE: SUBSTANCE ABUSE IN ADOLESCENTS 1

Substance abuse in adolescents

Taylor Heckman

SWK-1206

9 December 2019
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Abstract:

Substance abuse in adolescents is a major social issue especially when it comes to the

abuse of tobacco, alcohol, marijuana, and even opioid use. It is causing lots of deaths in

adolescents and young adults. It can be led by several things like family history, childhood

background, boredom, race, and social statuses. Adolescents are easily able to get ahold of these

substances and being provided to them by close family members and friends. We need to do

more to help these adolescents in terms of movements to help decrease the number of children

abusing substances. Treatment options are being investigated more to see which are the most

effective and which are the least effective for adolescents and young adults.
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Substance abuse in adolescents and young adults is a rising social issue. Substance abuse

is the misuse of drugs like marijuana, tobacco, prescription opioids, and alcohol. It is happening

all over the world and is affecting the youth, adolescents, and young adults around us. The

misuse of drugs or alcohol can be led on by many things like family history, trauma, boredom, an

injury, and the environment these young adults are being put in. “According to the National

Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA, 2008), there are four main reasons why people misuse

substances: (a) to feel good, (b) to feel better, (c) to do better, and (d) out of curiosity or because

others are doing it” (Dow, Kelly, 2013). Multiple parents and family risk factors have been found

to be one of the causes of adolescent substance abuse and in children by the time they are 12

years old (Sittner, 2016). The people being affected by this substance abuse in adolescents are

those young adults that are putting themselves in harm and even their families depending on how

bad the abuse gets.

Substance abuse disorder affects people’s brains when it comes to behavior and leads to

not being able to control the use of drugs, tobacco or alcohol (Masroor, et al, 2019). Some of the

most commonly misused substances are tobacco, alcohol, and cannabis. ”As per the national

survey in 2017, 17% of the 12 years and older age population (approximately 44 million)

reported the use of an illicit substance or heavy alcohol use during the prior year…” (Masroor, et

al, 2019). It is not made aware enough to our nation how big of a social issue substance abuse is

becoming in adolescents and young adults and there are so many risk factors for example, their

lives. Some of these substances are killing young adults and children. In the past two decades,

the misuse of opioids and poisonings has been rising and is now a public health crisis in the US.

The number of deaths caused by this misuse of opioids and poisonings has tripled since 1999

(Hudgins, Porter, Monuteaux, Bourgeois, 2019). However, those rates are including everyone
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and not just young adults. “Opioid exposures accounted for over 12% of all deaths in 2016

among 15- to 24-year-olds, which represents a 4-fold increase since 2001” (Hudgins, et al,

2019). The Center for Disease Control did a National Vital Statistics Report in 2018 and it

showed that the main cause of deaths when it comes to young adults and adolescents is

unintentional injuries like poisonings. It is not known for sure where these young adults and

adolescents are obtaining the prescription opioids, but the studies are figuring out that it is being

exposed to by adults like family members, parents, and even friends (Hudgins, et al, 2019).

A project was done, and the studies found that 45.6 percent of African American

adolescents abuse cannabis and 24.6 percent abused the use of tobacco. When compared to

White adolescents’ 73.7 percent of them were abusing the use of opioids, 64.2 percent of the

adolescents were also abusing the use of tobacco, and 61.7 percent of these white adolescents

were abusing the use of cocaine, and amphetamine. In Hispanics, it was found that they majorly

abused alcohol, cocaine and amphetamine (Masroor, et al, 2019). Another study was done, and it

focused on adolescent’s abuse of alcohol, marijuana, and cigarettes between the ages of 10-18

years old. During this study, they found that in California they had done a statewide surveillance

of marijuana use and were able to find out indigenous youth are more likely to use marijuana

than White adolescents and young adults (Sittner, 2015). It seems each substance is being abused

all throughout our nation and between different races however, some tend to abuse certain

substances more than other races.

Socio-economic statuses may seem like they would play a big role in substance abuse,

but we need to take a bigger look into this and reevaluate how we think of the socio-economic

statuses and the types of substances they are abusing. “By socio-economic status (SES),

adolescents with conduct disorder from low-income families (below 25th percentile) abused
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majorly cannabis (42.9%) and alcohol (31.3%), middle-income families (51st to 75th percentile)

abused opioid (44.1%), and those from high-income families (above 75th percentile) equally

abused alcohol, tobacco, cannabis, and cocaine/amphetamine…” (Masroor, et al, 2019). It seems

that those in high-income families are abusing them more than low-income families which may

come as a shocker to most. A study was done, and they found that adolescents who were

smoking tobacco were being brought on by living in low socioeconomic status, however, alcohol

and cannabis use in adolescents were living in families with a higher socioeconomic status

(Masroor, et al, 2019).

There are treatment options for these adolescents who are using these substances. These

treatment options can range from group counseling, behavioral therapy, pharmacological

therapy, and family therapy (Tanner-Smith, Wilson, Lipsey, 2012). “Recent estimates from the

Treatment Episode Data Set indicate that approximately 11% of the 1.8 million substance abuse

treatment admissions in 2007 were for adolescents under age 20 years, the majority of whom

presented with marijuana/hashish as the primary substance abused” (Tanner-Smith, et al, 2012).

Based off an analysis that was done, it was found that group and mixed counselings were more

successful and had better outcomes in the patients than the other treatment options like

behavioral therapy and pharmacological treatments.

Although there are treatment options, they are not always successful. There was a study

done through a treatment program between 109 adolescents. It was a 12-week, 90-day program

and they had to attend group meetings (Dow, Kelly, 2013). Seventy percent of them were

reaching out for treatment due to misusing drugs like marijuana, sixteen percent were seeking

help for the misuse of alcohol only, and fourteen percent were wanting treatment for the misuse

of both (Dow, Kelly, 2013). That is a large percentage of those children misusing drugs and
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without getting the treatment it could lead to worse things like death or landing them in prison.

Even though those adolescents were reaching out it was found that most of them only did so

because their parent recommended it, a treatment provider recommended it, or it was being

required by a court or probation officer. Out of those 109 adolescents, only seventy-one percent

completed the full twelve-week program (Dow, Kelly, 2013). Most people are not willing to get

help on their own. They need guidance to help get through treatments. It is not just the abuser

who is having to deal with the consequences of abusing substances. Those who care for that

person are being required to do everything they can to help their loved ones get better while

dealing with their own problems in life.

A Social Worker can fulfill many roles in this social issue. Social Workers experience

many different situations when referring to substance abuse. One role would be recognizing and

noticing things from your clients that may show they are abusing a substance or even in the

process of becoming an abuser of a substance whether that is what you are seeing the client for at

the moment or not. They can also be found responsible for assisting people who are abusing

substances when it comes to needing counseling or finding the right group for each patient to

attend. A social worker should have resources for these kinds of situations to be able to point

their clients in the best way possible to ensure they can get better. They should also have some

information or personal feedback about the places that they are recommending to these clients.

A social worker can influence this social issue at a micro-level of intervention by helping

their client who is abusing a substance and needing to get out of a bad living situation. The social

worker would then assist in finding a better place to live like foster care at first to take them

away from other people who are influencing the substance abuse around them if it was there

guardian in this case. They could then assist them in getting government assistance for health
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insurance to be able to attend a physician to take care of any physical injuries caused by

substance abuse or even to help with treatment programs. A social worker can influence this

social issue at a macro level of intervention by setting up and putting together some form of

support group to assist adolescents who are abusing substances so that they don’t feel so alone.

An ethical principle that would come into play as a substance abuse social worker would be

dignity and worth of person because as a social worker you are going to have clients who are

living in completely different situations than you are or ever have. The social worker also has to

respect and be worthy of other cultures because you will have clients from different cultural

backgrounds.

Becoming a substance abuse social worker is an area of interest to me and can see myself

working in this area of social work because it has always been an interest since we started

learning about it. During my research, I found so much interesting information that really opened

my eyes to how serious substance abuse is becoming in adolescents and young adults. I also

know someone close to me who has struggled from substance abuse and seeing it with your own

eyes makes you really want to be able to do something to help others who are going through it.

This area of social work can relate to my service learning because I volunteered at a food shelter

and as a social worker, I feel that you should know of good resources to be able to recommend

them to your clients for them and their families.

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Works Cited:

Dow, S. J., & Kelly, J. F. (2013). Listening to youth: Adolescents’ reasons for

substance use as a unique predictor of treatment response and

outcome. Psychology Of Addictive Behaviors: Journal Of The Society

Of Psychologists In Addictive Behaviors, 27(4), 1122–1131. https://doi-

org.sinclair.ohionet.org/10.1037/a0031065

Hudgins, J. D., Porter, J. J., Monuteaux, M. C., & Bourgeois, F. T. (2019).

Prescription opioid use and misuse among adolescents and young

adults in the United States: A national survey study. PLoS

Medicine, 15(11), 1–15. https://doi-

org.sinclair.ohionet.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002922

Masroor, A., Patel, R. S., Bhimanadham, N. N., Raveendran, S., Ahmad, N.,

Queeneth, U., … Mansuri, Z. (2019). Conduct Disorder-Related

Hospitalization and Substance Use Disorders in American

Teens. Behavioral Sciences (2076-328X), 9(7), 73. https://doi-

org.sinclair.ohionet.org/10.3390/bs9070073

Sittner, K. J. (2016). Trajectories of Substance Use: Onset and Adverse

Outcomes Among North American Indigenous Adolescents. Journal of

Research on Adolescence (Wiley-Blackwell), 26(4), 830–

844. https://doi-org.sinclair.ohionet.org/10.1111/jora.12233

Tanner-Smith, E. E., Wilson, S. J., & Lipsey, M. W. (2013). The comparative effectiveness of

outpatient treatment for adolescent substance abuse: A meta-analysis. Journal of

Substance Abuse Treatment, 44(2), 145–158. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsat.2012.05.006

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