Abuse of Illicit drugs involves misusing illegal and highly addictive substances such as marijuana, cocaine, and ketamine. Once an individual starts using an illicit drug, the addiction associated with it makes it hard for them to quit. According to Skidmore et al. (2016), an addiction to illicit drugs makes an individual act and think differently compared to those that do not abuse drugs. Most people that abuse illicit drugs are aware of its negative impact on their lives. However, they find it hard to quit due to addiction. Therefore, the consumption of illicit drugs is a health problem for every individual, including high school seniors who suffer adverse consequences. Most high-schoolers abuse ecstasy as it is considered a rave drug or party drug. Other illicit drugs abused by high school seniors include cocaine, hallucinogens, heroin, inhalants, ketamine, marijuana, and meth (Skidmore et al., 2016).
Abuse of illicit drugs is one of the most critical issues facing high school seniors in the US. According to the 2016 Monitoring the Future (MTF) study, there is a decrease in illicit drug abuse rates among adolescents over the last four years. The study reported that about 26% of male students and 19.2% of female students use illicit drugs. Overall, 14.3% of high school seniors were found to have used illegal substances in 2016, which is lower than the rate in 2013, which was 17.8% (Skidmore et al., 2016). As much as students consider drug abuse a regular activity and end up abusing these drugs, it cannot be ascertained that abuse of illicit drugs is benign. There is a huge disparity in gender vulnerability to drug abuse as more male students abuse illicit drugs than female students. Services to treat illicit drug abuse, such as rehabilitation, would help to solve such disparities.
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Several strategies can be used to prevent abuse of illicit drugs among youths. First, parents should talk to their kids about teen drug use. In order to make this conversation successful, discuss means to avoid peer influence, consider media messages, talk about negative impact of using drugs, and ask for their views. It is also important to know the activities of the high-schoolers and encourage them to take part in adult-supervised activities. As a family, establish rules that will govern the behaviors of your kids to prevent them from abusing illicit drugs since the latter have adverse consequences on their lives. Lastly, it is important to know your child’s friend since they are likely to be influenced into taking illicit drugs by their peers. In situations where students are already addicted to the drug, treatment approach is used. Treatment include taking the addicts to rehabilitation centers to help them recover from the drug. The drug addicts themselves play a crucial role in their rehabilitation process and their attitude towards the process helps in their quick recovery.
There exists a gender disparity in the abuse of illicit drugs as it is more prone in men more than 12 years old than in ladies (Skidmore et al., 2016). However, women suffer more severe mental disorders as a result of substance use than men. Skidmore et al. (2016) relate effective parental involvement and religiosity with substance abuse. Currently, the United States encourages parents to offer good parenting to their daughters to prevent them from engaging in uncouth behaviors that can lead to substance abuse. The government is trying to avoid the adverse consequences that illicit abuse has on school-going girls than boys. Girls who take illicit drugs are likely to drop out of school due to early pregnancy or mental disorders, making them the government's primary target.
As a future nurse, I can implement some strategies to ensure I successfully provide patient education, health promotion, and disease prevention on illicit drug abuse. First, I would assess and teach people about health risks associated with family, population, and community characteristics. Also, I would assess the victim’s readiness to learn, barriers to learning, and learning preferences before providing patient education. As a registered nurse, I could evaluate the client’s understanding of health promotion activities and behaviors to ensure that they gain meaningful information from the promotion.
The use of technology helps reduce incidences of illicit drug abuse since it has led to the development of applications used in the treatment of drug addiction. Such apps include Workit Health, RIA Health, BioCorRx, AA Big Book, and Sober Grid. These apps help the addicts to get sober, thereby saving most lives. Since most high school seniors have access to the internet and are active in various social media platforms, technology enables them to be taught via their smartphones. As much as the use of technology can harm the user, its benefits depend on the user.
Future nurses can improve their knowledge about illicit drug abuse by attending training that deals with substance abuse. They can either participate in basic, advanced, or specialized training to enhance their knowledge. Basic training involves a sensitization to illicit drug abuse. In contrast, advanced training is a specific type of training provided to experts that require specific interventions and technical skills. Specialized training is provided to nurses who directly care about illicit drug patients to provide adequate care.
Reference
Skidmore, C. R., Kaufman, E. A., & Crowell, S. E. (2016). Substance use among college students. Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics , 25 (4), 735-753.
