In recent decades, researchers and mental health experts have made extensive progress in uncovering the basic nature of substance abuse and addiction. In part, their conclusions show that, over time, abuse and addiction affect the body in ways that are highly analogous to the effects of chronic diseases such as heart disease and diabetes. Still, despite these findings, people with abuse- or addiction-related issues are sometimes stereotyped in society as morally weak or somehow mentally deficient. Despite these stereotypes, current evidence shows that people with low IQs don’t have especially high risks for illicit drug use. In fact, high childhood IQ score-not low scores-appear to be associated with increased risks for illicit drug use in adulthood.

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With recent legalizations at the state level for marijuana use, some argue that it is only a matter of time before smoking pot will be as commonplace as tobacco or alcohol use. Even in some states that have declined to legalize the drug, the use or possession of marijuana has been downgraded to a lesser charge.

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As recently as 2009, a new set of drugs began appearing on the scene. These drugs bore the humdrum names of ordinary household products, but were anything but ordinary in their actual effects. Kids were able to easily get these drugs because they were labeled as household items and sold at the neighborhood quick-market. The ploy of everyday names and the warning that they were not intended to be consumed by humans kept them off the drug enforcement radar for only a short time, but they continue to be difficult to identify, though hopefully harder to come by. Here are some of the most popular:

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In 1996, the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) introduced a psycho stimulant that assists those with attention-deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD). Used properly, the drug helps many children and adults focus on routine tasks that they encounter throughout their day.

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Many people may be familiar with the organization Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). They may, however, be less familiar with the strategy which makes AA so successful in helping people live sober for a lifetime.

Known as the 12 Step program, the method was originally designed to address alcoholism. Since the beginning of AA, the 12 Step model has been adapted to help people looking to overcome a variety of addictions. New research shows that the highly successful strategy works equally well for teens and young adults seeking recovery.

Teens Benefiting Greatly From 12 Step Programs

Teens that complete treatment for drug or alcohol use benefit just as much as adults from post-rehab support programs that are based on 12 Step methodology according to a pair of recent studies. Up until now not much research had be done tracking teen and young adult involvement in these programs, but a couple of new investigations show that the programs provide younger participants with a support resource that is often otherwise lacking for them.

Teens and young adults who are working on sobriety often do not have a healthy network of sober friends. The 12 Step program provides a ready-made group of supporters to them.

A recent study lasted one year and followed 300 plus teens and young adults to record their involvement in 12 Step programs and compared that to their use outcomes. On the high end, the youth attended meetings three times per week at the beginning of the year. Attendance dropped to just over one time per week by the end of the year.

Link Between 12 Step Attendance/Sponsor Contact And Sobriety

Researchers found a direct link between attendance and sobriety. The more often the teen/young adult attended support group meetings, the longer they remained sober.

As encouraging as those results were, there was even better news for young people who verbally participated in the group meetings and who kept in contact with their sponsor. For those folks, there was an even stronger tendency to remain drug and alcohol free.

Attending meetings regularly helped to make positive lifestyle changes, but fully investing in the 12 Step program by participating at meetings and staying accountable to the 12 Step group sponsor made that change more secure.

A second study followed 127 teenagers for one year to see how attending a 12 Step meeting influenced their ability to maintain abstinence. In that study only about one-third of teens stayed faithful to the group sessions. However, for those who did, even attending just one meeting per week made a difference in their ability to avoid relapses.

One Harvard medical expert commenting on this study suggested that teens join a group even before they complete their regular rehab treatment. Joining early, he said, improves the likelihood that the teen will stay active with the group once he/she leaves formal rehab.

The bottom line is this: attending a 12 Step group is the best step toward living sober and the more actively involved a person is in that group, the more certain their recovery becomes.

The dangers of the home medicine cabinet were a topic of discussion at San Francisco’s recent 140th annual meeting of the American Public Health Association, the oldest organization of public health professionals worldwide. Health officials are noticing a growing trend of adolescents getting their drugs legally, free, and easily right from inside their own home.

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When children are growing up, their grade schools and high schools attempt to deter drug use. The anti-drug committees collaborate, in many schools, to create a presentation outlining the effects of long-term drug use by showing a few intimidating videos of someone overdosing in an attempt scare the urge to try drugs right out of us. Our parents warned against drugs, compelling us to focus on school and disregard invitations for drugs use, as it would inevitably lead us to destroy our plotted futures. On some children, this works. On some children, the urge to experiment with substances has been frightened out of them and they continue their lives on a straight and narrow path. Unfortunately, with skyrocketing statistics reporting drug use in the United States, warnings just aren’t enough for hundreds of thousands of people. The truth is, for those of us who received our thrills by disobeying authority, these talks only intrigued us to explore drugs.

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In the past, parents may have worried that their teen was abusing alcohol or hard street drugs, but today’s parents need to be alert to the dangers of doctor-prescribed pharmaceuticals. And rather than imagining what sort of nefarious characters might be selling their child dangerous substances, parents need only take a look in the mirror. The problem of prescription drug abuse, particularly opioid painkillers like OxyContin and Vicodin, is huge in our country and American youth have been sucked in right along with adults and seniors.

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