Role of family and peer group in drug abuse

 

Peer group is a kind of primary group, usually formed between individuals who are either of similar age or who are in common professional group. Drug abuse is an illustration of the dangerous negative effects that peer pressure has on adolescents. Oxford English Dictionary defines peer pressure as the influence from members of the same group. One may think of many kinds of peer pressure that may have a positive or negative aspect. Peer group is a term commonly used by psychologists to describe people of a similar age, often when talking about adolescents. There is peer pressure in different ages and different places. For instance, workers at the same factory have peer pressure which is positive because each one of them tries to do his or her best at work. There is peer pressure among small kids; they try to do the same gestures and have the same toys and there is also peer pressure in ethnic groups. Finally, there is peer pressure among adolescents which is the most important kind since it influences the adolescents' personality and intervenes in the development of their morality. According to Lamsaouri (1994-1995) the cause of substance over use among peers is that everyone else is using it and there is no problem to use it. This is the answer of all adolescents that are caught overusing drugs. Another reason for which adolescents abuse of drugs is the pressure peers have on each other. All peers in the same group are obliged to do the same thing and conform to the rules of the group. Therefore, adolescents start using drugs even if they are convinced that they are harmful for their health. Besides, over using drugs, for peers, means that adolescents are strong and they can break down general rules that they learnt from their parents or their teachers. In general, adolescents, use drugs to full fill their need of belonging since it's a source of self esteem for teens. In fact, Haynie (2002) find out that adolescents get their self esteem from the group they are belonging to and they cannot imagine themselves outside that gathering. Without a group, youths have a low self esteem and they are powerless. They see friends or peers as a vital component in their life without which they cannot live. There are many problems with substance overuse among adolescents, but the biggest one is addiction. Members of the same group overuse drugs and new members have to the same. However, when it comes to addiction, no one is responsible for anybody else. When a peer becomes addicted to smoking, drinking, or illicit substances, it is his/her own responsibility to solve the problem and never tell that he or she was influenced by someone else (Cang and Hawk, 1996). If he or she tells someone else that there is a peer that he/she is hanging out with, the trouble starts with the peer who leads, in most cases, to violence and even death. Indeed, Howell and Decker (1999) declares, “Because the growth in youth gang violence coincided with the crack cocaine epidemic, the two developments were generally perceived to be interrelated.” As a result, there is a strong correlation between the use of drugs and violence among adolescents. In fact, when adolescents start over using drugs, they start fighting over illicit drugs since they are expensive and sometimes when they over use drug they lose control and they can do anything they could not do while they are conscientious. In his book Drogue, Adolescence, et Milieu Social, Sidi Ahmed Lamsaouri (1994-1995), conducted a research on drugs and adolescents in Morocco and found that 55, 13% of teens are introduced to drugs by the intermediary of peers. This huge rate indicates the salient and strong influence that peers have on each other, especially drug abuse. Kawaguchi (2004) inserts, “Peer effects or peer pressure is identified as a critical determinant, since the use of substance is considered to be a highly social behavior.”Consequently, substance is introduced to peers through a social intermediary which is mostly people from the same age. There are many examples of why peers encourage each other to overuse drugs. Sometimes, peers use substance to overcome stress and they conserve a good feeling, so that they advice each other to use it. Besides, some peers got addicted by others and they cannot recover, therefore, to take their revenge on, they try to make others addicted and based on the weak personality adolescents have, the result is easily gotten. The last, reason for which peers push each other to abuse substance is conformity. In teen's age, adolescents want to conform at any price and sometimes addiction to illicit drugs is the price they pay.