Page 4 - Med life mag

4 MEDLIFE

CAUSES OF TEENAGERS

TAKING DRUGS

WORDS BY FOO SIM YEE, BIBIANNA LV

Smoking, drinking, and drug use endure as popular yet dangerous behaviours among
teenagers, especially for drugs. The results shows that teenagers took drugs because of the
curiosity about drugs, often persuaded by friends or influenced from the mass medias.
Marketing should be a platform where positive products or service are shown to the public
through social media. According to Martin et al. (2013), marketing cues such as advertising,
labeling or directions on drug packages recreate teenagers’ temptations. This action causes
teenagers who wants to know more about it.

Due to the lack of education information about drug, many teenagers are not aware
about the danger of drugs. Many teenagers are far less aware of the dangers associated with the
misuse or abuse of prescription drugs (Executive Office of the President, 2011). As personality
trait of teenagers nowadays are excited about new things and will gain curiosity about it, they
risk taking and excitement seeking and effects of sensation seeking (Arria et al, 2008). Living
in the modern society nowadays, teenagers are used as a object for experiment (Substance
Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2001; Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, n.d.; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 2007).

In the modern days nowadays, teenagers are easier to get persuade by their friends due
to peer pressure. That is why the more the number of examples of teens who take drugs, the
more teenagers will follow from whom they could learn that taking drugs is normal (Gibbons,