Adolescents have to spend hundreds of dollars for buying drinks and drugs and peer pressure would encourage them to engage in culpable actions. Typically, an alcoholic or drug-abusing adolescent would meet his financial needs by stealing from his own house. The next step is lying and borrowing from friends and in the worst case submitting to demands for sexual favors in order to sustain the costly habit. The individual surrenders his self-respect to the addiction and also losses trustworthiness in the society. As discussed earlier, alcohol and criminal behavior go hand in hand. Substance abusers have problems managing their emotions and typically show more aggressive behavior. This is because consumption of alcohol or other drugs disinhibits the brain regions that normally control our behaviors. Impairment of cognitive ability also limits rational thinking that is essential for normal social behavior. A nation wide study of college students in 1997 revealed that intoxication was a precedent factor to verbal and physical aggression in around 24% of the students. [PETER R. GIANCOLA, 2002, 129-139] Conclusion

Several research studies have attributed the increasing number and the serious nature of adolescent crimes to consumption of alcohol and drug abuse. There is very strong evidence to prove that alcohol and drugs have serious negative implications for the individual and the society at a collective level. There is no question of doubt that for the adolescent community alcohol and drugs represent a dangerous, destructive,...

Educating our youth and organizing community level awareness and rehabilitation program are the most effective methods of dealing with the alcohol and drug menace that threatens to destroy the future prospects of our nation.
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