also start to view themselves as independent beings in decision making. All this hormonal changes also come with the negativity of maturity such as drugs and alcohol. The statistics below show that the percentage of teenagers using drugs and alcohol in the last decade has increased. Why is this? The answer is that teenagers are under pressure by their peers, mass media and also the influence of parents. 8th-Graders 10th-Graders 12th-Graders Marijuana 22.2% 40.9% 49.7% Cocaine 4.7 7.7 9.8 Inhalants 15.4 17.0 19.7 LSD 4.1 8.5 12.2 Heroin 2.0 2.3 2.3 Alcohol 52.1 70.6 80.0 Cigarettes 44.1 57.6 64.6 Peer pressure plays a major role in the harmful behavior of teens. Teens who want to fit in among their friends are most especially prone to this. They try to make friends and they get friends as much as possible. Of these friends there are the good ones who give them the knowledge and information you want need or inquire and there are the ones who give them information about not too good things like drug, alcohol, parties, e.t.c. This influential communication between a teen and his/her peer may be directly or indirectly. Directly such as conversations with their friends or indirectly such as listening to classmates discussing of a party which occurred a night before. Then they begin to mention alcohol, drugs and violence obviously from what have experienced they talk about it in a way possible. Then you would like to see how good it is the next weekend you go to that kind of party. If you can not resist such as a temptation you will begin to do harmful deeds that will definitely have adverse results in the future. Let’s not put all the blame on teens and their peers alone. The mass media is also responsible in an understandable way. The media has proven to be a lot damaging than useful in the type of information meant for mature audience but end up with the immature audience. Soap operas and frivolous shows shown on TV contain immoral a...
