Prevention of teenage smoking, alcohol use and drug abuse

Abstract

Adolescent drug abuse, alcohol abuse and smoking are complex public health problems with serious adverse consequences (Botvin, 1999; Hansen & O’Malley, 1996; Newcomb & Bentler, 1988; Pagliaro & Pagliaro, 1996). Distinctions are commonly made between experimental or recreational drug use, harmful drug abuse and drug dependence. Recreational drug use is conceptualized as a normative risk-taking behaviour common to most adolescents. Drug taking that leads to personal harm is referred to as drug abuse and drug dependence refers to those situations where there is a compulsive pattern of use involving the physiological changes that accompany tolerance and withdrawal. Only a proportion of youngsters who engage in recreational drug use progress to drug abuse and develop drug dependence. However, for the proportion that do follow this trajectory the outlook is bleak. Habitual drug abuse may negatively affect mental and physical health, criminal status, educational status, the establishment of psychological autonomy, and the development of longterm intimate relationships. The children of habitual teenage drug abusers may suffer from drug-related problems such as fetal alcohol syndrome, intrauterine addiction or HIV infection. Even for those youngsters who do not progress to drug abuse, strong links have been established between accidental deaths, such as those due to road traffic accidents, and drug and alcohol use. Four out of five teenagers who smoke more than two cigarettes a day are likely to become regular smokers with an increased risk for major chronic diseases, particularly lung cancer.