As everyone knows, rock stars live their lives by the motto
sex, drugs and rock'n'roll. This seems to have inspired them and their fans, it
follows suit. Even though there are plenty of cases where alcohol or drugs
caused the death of some great artists, such practices are considered
interesting and "cool". Therefore one of the causes of death in the
first 25 years of life is the consumption of toxic substances.
Also,
another implication is the fact that
more and more people start their sexual life at a younger age, and especially
that they practice unsafe sex, causing it to increase the frequency of unwanted
pregnancies or sexually transmitted diseases among teenagers. Nowadays about
80% of the young people have problems with sexual debut, belive experts in
sexology. The reason for this situation is related to conditions that occur
early sexual activity.
For young
people another way to feel good and to relax is smoking. 65% of teenagers up to
16 years admit that they smoked at least one cigarette. In addition, the lowest
age at which children fall prey to this vice is 12 years. Most of them are
driven to these vices because of family problems, social problems, self
confidence, peer pressure, attitude and education.
Aproximatively 5000 teenagers die every year because of car
accidents caused by alcohol abuse.Adolescents tend to be atracted by such
forbidden things like driving and alcohol, the two combined can lead to a
higher rate of death in the line of teenagers.Teenagers who drink expose themselves
to major risks and even death.Individuals who consume alcohol and drive, have
more chances to be involved in car accidents than others.
The suicide rate also increases, teenagers who drink tend to
have more suicide attempts and be generally more pessimistic as those who don’t
drink or drink very little.
So why do teenagers drink?
We all know
the after-effects of drinking, the head aches, the dizziness…etc.So why is it
that more and more teenagers tend to drink too much, some even become
alcoholics later in their lives.The answer is: to be cool.It is simple as that,
the desire of all teenagers and adults too, is to fit in.We all want to fit in
the difference is how we do it.
The real
problem , which is quite normal in every age, is self doubt.Adults hide it,
teenagers try to hide it but they don’t always choose the right way to do it.
Alcohol, drugs and smoking are just paths they choose to imitate adults, adults
which seem to have lots and lots of self confidence.It is a well-known fact
that people who are self confident attract other people around them like a
magnet, that is the exact same effect that every teenager wants: attention.They
drink and afterwards they talk about it, they invent or simply tell stories
about humorous things that happened on a Friday night so that their other
collegues will want those experiences too.Some want their parents attention so
they drink, they consume one of the legal drugs.It is quite easy to get in a club, pub or a bar.It
becomes more tricky in a supermarket where the salesperson can ask you for your
ID.
In Romania
there is a law that forbids teenagers under 18 to go out in clubs and pubs ,but
in a Friday night teenagers fill up most of the clubs along students.In a dark
crowded room, no one bothers to ask wheter you are under 18 or not, they just
serve you like a 20 year old student.However you can barely see the difference
between highschool students and university graduates.Girls wear excessive make
up and high heels along unshaved boys with untied shirts so it is quite
impossible to make a difference.
What is
in fact so wrong about teenagers who drink?
Everyone
knows that drinking can cause liver diseases even when you are an adult and
your liver is entirely developed, but what happens when you drink as a teenager
, in a state in which your liver is not fully developed?Most teenagers say that
the liver can regenerate itself and that drinking I brings actually no damage
to your body.The human liver is unable to regenerate until it is fully
developed.Alas there is more than one problem that comes along with drinking:
the death of brain cells.This is also an effect of drugs and it can lead to the
unability to concentrate and also interferes in the social life causing more
and more troubles within a group or family.
Another
reason would be that they tend not to be able to control themselves so they can
get into dangerous fights or car accidents.
As to
alcoholism in the line of romanian teenagers, Romania is in the top 5 countries
with drinking problems on teenagers.47%
of boys aged 13 admitted they drank more than once or twice in their lives.
Only 18% of Romanian girls aged 14
admitted they consumed alcohol more than
three times until the moment of the interview. Along the top spots are also
Denmark, Lituania and Letland
2.Smoking
The first drug to have contact with the young people is
tobacco and most of them taste it before high school. A lot of them are aware
of the long-term risks of smoking, as pulmonary cancer, but not everybody knows
about the short-term effects. A cigarette contains about 4000 chemical
substances like nicotine, arsenic, ammonia, methane, carbon monoxide, butane,
formaldehyde. This cocktail of poisonous substances weakens the bone substance
in teeth, lowers all the hormone levels (causing fertility issues), lowers the
capacity of effort causing heart strain and lower pulmonary capacity. It also
affects the immune system by increases the risk for infections and the risk of
complications in acute illnesses.
So why do teenagers smoke?
-They see
it as an act of rebellion, making them feel free and independent; but it is
exactly the opposite because they loose their freedom because of the nicotine
dependence.
- Also they
do it when they wish to be a part of a group, the entourage has a big influence
over the youngsters.
-They see
their idols doing it so they want to be just like them, not thinking about the
consequences.
-If the
parents are smoking there is a big chance that the kids will smoke too.
-Another
risk factor is the low self-esteem;
smoking contributes to the developing of depression between teenagers.
-The
managers of the pubs and cafes are indulgent regarding minors smoking and so
does the cigarette sellers.
In Romania
over 30% of all the people are smokers. The number of underage smokers is
increasing every year, almost one million of teenagers start smoking every year
and the percent of girls is bigger.
In this
situation severe measures must be taken and rough punishments must be applied
to those who violate them. Smoking in public places should be banned and the
cigarette commercialization should be reduced. There should be also programs
that inform children at early ages about the risk of smoking so they don’t see
it as something “cool”, special, but as something dirty, unhealthy and wrong.
3.Drugs
What are drugs?
What are drugs? The term drug has several meanings. In broad
sense means any substance (natural or artificial) which through their chemical
nature affects an organ. In the narrow sense it refers to substances that cause
tolerance and addiction. In plain language, this term refers to psychoactive
substances, especially illegal ones. In other words, the drug is a solid,
liquid or gas, whose use turns into habbit and affects the brain and nervous
system, changing feelings, mood and thinking, perception and consciousness,
changing the image of the reality.
The drug consumption in Romania:
The actual number of drug users in Romania is not known.
Until now no study has been realized nationally among the entire population.
Thus, all figures handled about drug use in Romania are estimates. In 1999,
however, was made a nationwide study among 10th graders (15-16 years). The
study found that 9,5% of them used illegal drugs at least one in their lives.
In 2001, between drug users who have requested medical services 93% were heroin
users.
Legal drug
dealers appeared in an appropriate period, when the Romanian society was facing
a series of macroeconomic difficulties. In early 2009 there were registered 18
legal drug shops, and at the beginning of 2012 there were registered about 400
stores. Economic crisis facilitated the appearance of these "shops of
dreams". These stores turned into an alternative to solve problems. Plants
sold in such shops produce physical dependence, psychological or mixed.
Reasons:
The reasons why people are turning to drugs are the most
various. For most addicts, at first it was the search for a pleasure or desire
to identify with a group in which the drug was raised to the rank of god. Peer
pressure, curiosity, ignorance, alienation, changing social structures,
urbanization and unemployment are all factors that can trigger the addiction.
For an individual who feels isolated in the family, in a group or comunity, the
drug may be a temporary and tragic refuge. For them, the search of a better and
easier life ends in disappointment, and in the escape from reality,
fragile people can turn to these
alternative of "production of dreams".
It is always
hard to resist the peer pressure and it takes a lot of courage and strength to
remain firm in what you know is right, to resist drugs when your friends try to
convince you that "everybody does it". In fact, not everyone takes
drugs, and those who do have far fewer chances to be happy and to have a
productive life than those who do not use drugs. Most times, things are going
this way: the individual who is incapable to adapt it's aspirations to their
real world creates a fantasy world in which he hopes to fullfill his destiny.
How it is installed the drug addiction
Euphoria, the "enjoyable" effect of the drugs
corresponds to a first stage. When the addicted continues to take drugs, the
pleasure decreases and the individual will be forced to consume higher doses,
hoping to obtain the same effect. This stage is the beginning of the tolerance.
Regular and repeated drug administration adapts the body so well to it, that
drug deprivation becomes a pain, sometimes even deadly. It has appeared, in
this case, physical dependence on narcotics. The person will try to procure at
all costs the necessary doses. He will be able to commit wrongdoings of any
kind, becoming a toy in the hands of traffickers and ending often in the
morgue. A happy ending it would be if the addicted would be sent to a treatment
center and physiotherapy, where the recovery and the detachment of drugs are
not only expensive, but also very long.
People say
that weak persons are predisposed to drug addiction. In fact, the opposite is
true: drug addicts are weak persons. Nobody consume drugs to get addicted to
them. People take drugs for various reasons like the desire to escape the
reality of everyday life, to adapt or to be accepted by others. In most cases,
drugs offer at first just what the individual is looking for. This quality is
one of the strongest factors which contribute to addiction.
Law against drugs
Since the Convention and the Protocol on Opium (concluded in
Geneva in February 1925), Romania joined and ratified all major international
conventions whose purpose is to control and limit the use of illegal drugs.
United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and
Psychotropic Substances (1988) is the last significant international document
signed by our country in this domain.
In Romania, the law on drugs is
based on the Criminal Code, the Customs Code and the Customs Regulation, so all
actions involving possession or sale/purchase of drugs (for any purpose and
amount) are punishable by imprisonment and, in some cases, with the limitation
of rights.
The law
against drugs in Romania is Law no. 143 of 2000 on combating illicit drug trafficking
and consumption. Here are some of the provisions of this law:
Art
4: Cultivation, production, manufacture, testing, extractioning, preparation,
processing, purchase or possession of drugs for personal use, without right,
shall be punished with imprisonment from 2 to 5 years.
Art
5: Providing, with discernment, with any title, of a place, of a house or any
place arranged, in which the public has access to illicit drugs or illicit
tolerance in such places is punished with imprisonment 3 to 5 years and
interdiction of certain rights.
Art
11: (1)Instigation to illicit drug use, by any means, if followed by execution,
shall be punished with imprisonment from 6 months to 5 years.
(2)If
the instigation is not followed by implementation, the punishment is 6 months
to 2 years or a fine.
Confessions
The following story is a confession of an unnamed 18 years
old boy from Oradea. He says "I have struggled myself with drugs between
15 and 16. There was a time that i thought that drugs were everything i had to
live for. It all started when i went to a trip with a couple of friends and one
of them brought some joints. When i saw the drugs i said no, but after a little
presure from my friends i accepted. It was a very odd and i felt dizzy and
happy. After that trip we started more and more often to get high. It was
extraordinary for a short period of time, but on long-term it was killing me
piece by piece. Some times i was conscious that it wasn't good but i couldn't
rezist. After a few months i decided that i had to stop and it was very very
difficult, but in a few months i succeeded. After i had managed to up to drugs
i was haunted by a weird feeling which tried to drew me back, but after another
6 months i was totally free. Most of my friend didn't make it and they had quit
school". Now he is happy and he studies at one of the best Universities
from the hole country.
4.Sex
Some Romanian research performed between 1993 - 1995 were
concerned with comparative analysis of attitudes and behaviors regarding the
initiation psychosexual at teenagers (boys and girls between 15 and 19 years),
and reveal the characteristics of sexual and psychosexual identity in this
stage of life. Based
on a significant number of individuals
and methods of research, based on opinion questionaries and autoapreciation,
clinic interviews, repeated conversations, the analysis of intimate diaries,
observations..etc, these observations led to interesting informations. So in
1993, in a research conducted on a sample of 176 adolescent subjects, 3 high
schools with different profiles, including 98 girls and 80 boys in grades
X-XII, indicates that while 46% of high school students have started sex life
at the age of 16 years (which points to early sexual initiation), however, the
number of sexual contacts varies from sex to sex, from period to period,
predominantly sporadic sex and revalive abstinence, followed by sexual contact.
The majority of interviewed teenagers (69,5%), perceive sex life as a source of
“positive impressions and satisfaction”, even if they haven’t started to have
sexual intercourse, but only 39% of those who did, declare themselves satisfied
with it, because of the dissapointments appeared in time.Only 38% of teenagers
have a partner with whom they feel temporarily satisfied, 20% aren’t pleased by
their partner and 22,5% have serious relationship problems with the opposite
sex or none. Especially girls show problems related to rejection of the female
sex-role, psychosexual identification difficulties while, most guys do not find
difficulties in taking powers of sex-role, and they have a degree of
self-acceptance and comfort in the role of psychosexual higher than girls.
Altough, 65,5%of teenagers have lacunes in their knowledge of inter-sexes
relationships, decalring themselves preocupied by their sexual future, almost
equally as the professional one and requiring classes dedicated to this matter
in the school programm or special cabinets that offer support, psychological
consiliation and psychosexual too.More than 80% of teenagers declare that
altough they didn’t have sexual problems they had ones of affective nature with
their parents and partners or inferiority complexes and doubts along inadequacy
feelings as a result to the incapacity to establish positive contacts with the
opposite sex, 28% of teenagers(who started their sex life), considers family to
be guilty of their sexual and effective
dissatisfactions and 19% acuse the lack of private space for their intimate
life.
Girls consider their parents attitude to
be restrictive and boys are frustrated by the absence of a locative and
psychologic place, which would ensure autonomy to their sex life. 44.5% appealed to emotional support,
especially from friends, people they know, mature, relatives, but less to
parents. Girls more than boys sometimes require emotional support from mothers.
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