Addiction Treatment

According to the 2007 Monitoring the Future study released in December, overall use of illicit drugs by teenagers in the past year has declined. There has also been a reduction in tobacco use by eighth graders.

These statistics are very promising that anti-drug education is reaching a young audience and they are responding by not reaching for drugs or tobacco. A very interesting factor in the study was the noted decrease in steroid use among teenagers from 8th through the 12th grades. Since 2001 there has been a decrease of 33 percent with teenagers from the 8ths through 12th grades who have used steroids. There has also been a 45 percent decrease during 2007 in steroid use. These positive trends are credited in part to the hard works of the Partnership for a Drug-Free America and also Major League Baseball. The MLB and also the Partnership for a Drug-Free America have made a special effort to reach out to their young fans to encourage them to lead healthy lives. The two organizations have also strongly encouraged parents to talk to their children about illicit drug abuse and their effects. It is clear that youths look up to their Major League Baseball heroes and take their messages to heart. Hearing from someone you admire saying “Don’t do drugs and don’t smoke” truly has a powerful message for young teens. Many teens are responding to these messages and appear to understand the health risks of drug addiction involved in taking illicit drugs or in smoking. These are exciting facts to hear, as so many complain that teenagers do not listen and that many have turned to drug abuse. It appears that trends are indeed changing and that teenagers are not abusing drugs. Hearing anti-drug messages from their heroes is an important message that these teenagers are certainly listening to. It is inspiring to learn about these new trends, to understand that many youths are not becoming addicted to drugs. Older generations had the challenge where it was considered “cool” to do drugs and many were forced to seek addiction treatment. Now it seems that it is more “cool” to not do drugs. This is a very motivating trend to discover that will help save many young lives.