It seems that drugs are becoming a high epidemic to teens, and it keeps rising. Teens are looking for gateways out of dealing with things such as stress, but it is causing their future to go down the drain.

Most of teens are getting help from family members to get drugs, which is a huge part of the problem. As stated in the article Drugs Even Affect Kids, 65% of drug addicts get access to the drink via there closes family and friends. This is causing teens to think that it is okay to do drugs, and this is also showing lack o parental support. If teens see that other people are doing something, or people they look up to such as parents doing something then they are going to think it is okay. Being in high school, you are opened up to some of the teens and parents that are doing this for their children, so you see it going on.

A major cause of doing drugs is because of all the stress teens are dealing with. They are doing drugs in this case so they can create a way to escape from their problems. Red Ribbon week explains, Well quite a few have similar feelings that that the go through, for instance, depression or stress that can be caused by problems at school or with family friends. This has a tremendous impact on their decisions with drugs and alcohol.” Now day’s teens are exposed to a lot more school work and job related things that they feel they have no time to get any of it done, so it builds up a large amount of stress for them, so their escape is drugs or alcohol. There needs to be a program that explains to teens how this is affecting their lives in a negative way, and get them back on track.

Another major cause from doing drugs is violence. Kayla Bigmeat states 75% of domestic violence is caused by drug addicts. Teens doing drugs is causing them to be violent, and not only causing danger to themselves, but also causing a danger to the people around them. Drugs not only put you in an unstable position, but it also puts you in a dangerous position to be around others.

There are different programs that the U.S has to teach teens about living a healthy, drug free life. Red Ribbon Week also explains, Red Ribbon Week serves as a vehicle for communities and individuals to take a stand for the hopes and dreams of our children through a commitment to drug prevention... This program created fun ways, where you dress up in different ways to stay “drug free” and shows the children a creative way to being drug free. Although this is a creative way to stay drug free, it could appear to be immature for some of the high school kids. So if there was a more mature program stating to teens to stay drug free that could make an even larger impact.
Many programs are being held in the U.S to stop and help teens with drugs, but the epidemic still continues to rise. What will teens be doing 10 years from now? We need to stop this problem now, so the younger generations aren’t getting into things that are worse than drugs and alcohol. We need to let teens know that there are alternatives to doing drugs and drinking if they are stressed, depressed, or even just looking for a pastime. This cause is only going to get worse if we don’t do anything about it now.