NARCONON’S VIEW ON MEXICAN AMERICAN TEEN DRUG ABUSE

Anyone working at Narconon has come to learn that a lot of drug abuse starts with simple peer pressure.  Survey of our clients show that many of them started using drugs because they were told by a friend that it would be fun, or they went to a party where everyone else was participating in drug abuse.  Adolescence is a time when youth start learning things from sources other than their parents and teachers. Unfortunately for some, learning comes from observing individuals that might now have the best of intentions or the wisest of answers.

While this article from Latino Fox News suggests that Mexican middle school students in Phoenix are abusing alcohol and drugs because they feel discriminated against, chances are, they are feeling the same peer pressure as their white counter-parts.   Abusing drugs and alcohol is one way to cross the cultural divide, though a dangerous one.  Whether it is feelings of being discriminated against or peer pressure, contributing to drug abuse by Mexican middle school students is not easy to tell.  In this society the real problem is there are too many drugs available to anyone who thinks they have an excuse them.

Acculturation Stress Makes Latino Teens Turn to Pot, Alcohol, Study says

“Mexican middle school students in the Phoenix area are taking up alcohol and marijuana because they feel they are discriminated against, according to a new study.

The study, in the December issue of Prevention Science, said Mexican and Mexican American students who were trying to assimilate to the mainstream U.S. culture had a tough time coping – triggering stress. The stress puts the students at a higher risk for alcohol, cigarettes and marijuana dependence, the study says.

“As levels of perceived discrimination and acculturation stress increased with age, so did the risk for substance use,” said lead author Jennifer Kam, assistant professor in the School of Communication at Ohio State University.

The study, funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, followed 1,106 fifth through eighth graders of Mexican heritage in 29 public middle schools in Phoenix and surrounding areas.”

http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/health/2010/12/30/phoenix-discriminated-teens-turn-pot-alcohol/

Whatever the cause, the result will be the same for Narconon and other treatment programs.  There will be more people needing treatment.

Whether it be Mexican Americans, American Indians or any American, Narconon drug rehab
extends its help.  We don’t care what the reason for abuse is, we have a solution.