DRUG ABUSE AMONG AMERICAN TEENAGERS. Prescription opioid exposures

DRUG ABUSE
Name
Course
DRUG ABUSE AMONG AMERICAN TEENAGERS
Allen, J. D., Casavant, M. J., Spiller, H. A., Chounthirath, T., Hodges, N. L., & Smith, G. A. (2017). Prescription opioid exposures among children and adolescents in the United States: 2000–2015. Pediatrics, 139(4), e20163382.
           The journal by Allen and his counterparts can be considered as a secondary source since it’s the report of a third party. The journal is a report of a study that was conducted on children and adolescents in the United States. It sought to identify the level of exposure of opioids to the population below 20 years. Opioids are a class of hard drugs that include medicinal drugs and illegal substances like heroin. The synthetic ones are used to cure some illness e.g., relieve pain. The journal seeks to see how exposed are teenagers to these drugs, both the synthetic ones and the illegal ones. It brings out the concept where even synthetic drugs are abused at some point.
           The source relates to our paper since its discussion is focused on the abuse of opioids among people aged below 20 years. The findings of the research showed that the prescription is very high among the teenagers hence the possibility of constant abuse of the synthetic opioids by this group. Prescriptions of these drugs, as seen in the research, is high, thus promoting their exploitation by the teenagers. The method used to collect data for the study was the analysis of data ranging from 2000 – 2015 from the National Poison Data System. The source is reliable because the information it gives is not an opinion or argument of a person or a group of persons but rather evidence from a critically conducted research.
The solution offered by the journal as a remedy for drug abuse is improvement on measures that over the prescription of opioids. Strict measures will limit the access of the drugs hence reduction on cases of their abuse.
Fuller, C. M., Vlahov, D., Arria, A. M., Ompad, D. C., Garfein, R., & Strathdee, S. A. (2016). Factors associated with adolescent initiation of injection drug use. Public health reports.
           The book by Fuller and his fellow researchers can be viewed as a secondary source in the concept of our study since it is a third party’s report on data collected during research. The book is a report on an analysis that sought to explain which factors lead to adolescents getting into the use of injection drugs. Some of the things that the researchers identified were the demographics of the teenagers, their sexual behaviors, and the abuse of consumed drugs i.e., non-injection drugs. The study was conducted on youths aged 15-30 years in Baltimore, Maryland, who were found using injection drugs.
           The source can be trusted since the information given is from direct evidence collected from the research. It relates to our study since a section of the population being researched on (15-19 years) fall under our category of teenagers. The finding of the study was that the use of non-injection drugs is the most significant contributor to the use of injected drugs. It also identified that the highest percentage of youths who abused injected drugs were females, mostly African Americans. Demographics were also sighted as a major cause of drug abuse in the book.
Some of the factors outlined that lead to abuse of injected drugs included demographics, use of non- injected drugs and sexual behaviors. All these as outlined in the book are social issues. To solve the issue of injected drugs, a remedy to deal with some of these social issues was prescribed where the societies can be empowered to change the focus of the teenagers hence they’ll have other things to look up to and this will reduce the chances of drug abuse.
Gutierrez L., (2019). ‘I was so naïve’: Student from JoCo tells of his vaping addiction. Will teens listen? October 13, 2019. The Kansas City Star. /news/business/health-care/article235766207.html
           The source is a news article on The Kansas City Star published by Lisa Gutierrez on October 13, 2019. It is based on a narration by Taylor Webb, a resident of Johnson County who is recovering from vaping. Vaping is the act of inhaling and exhaling the vapor. The action is done on an electronic cigarette, pen cigarette, or any other similar substance. The article outlines a finding by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, which showed that over 3.6 million teenagers ...