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spread of drug-taking among certain vulnerable young people who
appear to have difficulty in maturing normally. An almost
indiscriminate distribution of sedatives, stimulants, anti-depressants,
etc., in earlier years by general practitioners has now
been curbed by doctors voluntarily banning prescriptions of these
drugs for certain treatments. However, with a constantly expanding
pharmacopoeia comes a greater range of drugs which could
prove to be dangerous in unauthorised hands, although it is not
part of preventive medicine to advocate withdrawal of extremely
useful drugs because, on occasions, they are seriously abused by
the young.
Reasons for drug taking in children are many and varied but
would include curiosity, initial pleasure, defiance of authority,
need to join "peer" groups, "dutch" courage in uncertain and
grave situations, escape from real life to one of fantasy, avoidance
of stress, etc., to name but a few. Contrary to popular
opinion, family background would seem to have little to do with
the habit of drug-taking which is common to all social classes
in that each adolescent has his/her own peculiar problems not
necessarily connected with low achievement or a broken home.
This is not to deny, however, that there is a small but important
group of drug mis-users who come from disturbed homes and who
provide a fertile field for criminal elements to manipulate them
as drug "pushers" or as petty thieves acquiring amphetamines
and similar substances by raiding chemist shops. Experience
tends to indicate that an adolescent's dissatisfaction with his/her
"showing" vis-à-vis contemporaries is taken by the individual as
a personal failure apparent to the world "at large" which demands
from him/her a demonstration of maturity in other directions.
Often this attitude is instrumental in the adoption of more hectic
leisure-time activities with older teenagers in pubs, out dancing,
discotheques, etc., in far from salubrious surroundings with their
associated dubious habits of smoking and drinking which the
modern youngsters are now able to afford. It is understandable
that, with such attendant influences, impulsiveness is heightened
and the path to drug-taking made too easy.
Most surveys into this comparatively novel phenomenon of
teenage drug-taking are inclined to indict "lack of communication"
as the main cause for its commencement and, polarisation
of attitudes within the family regarding behaviour,
character, friendships, etc., only exacerbate the problem. Confidence
between parent and child is a sine qua non in establishing
an ambience within which common sense and, if necessary, the
experience and understanding of a doctor and/or social worker
can work towards a solution. It is regrettable that by the time a