Adolescent Substance Abuse: Elements for a Conceptual Reflection

Abstract

This paper seeks to foster conceptual reflections on drugs, and their consequences, intervention, and vulnerabilities during adolescence. The first section describes the concept of drugs and their prevalence in consumption, since results evidence that more than 60% of users in Colombia are adolescents. The second section denotes the incidence of these substances on the dopaminergic system, their effects on the central nervous system and executive functions, and their role in cases of dependency and abuse. Moreover, this section assesses how governments are attempting to control this problem through poli- tical economic supply and demand offers. The third section explains demand by means of two models, with the first one focusing on consumption and neurological consequences, while the second describes a background for consumption decisions and actions, offering non conclusive results. Hence, within this context, a hypothetical proposal was structured to explain drug consumption choices through a theoretical construct that integrates a cognitive thesis. The fourth section refers to the propensity of adolescents to make poor choices, since the reported privilege toward consumption is a byproduct of immaturity, which is an element to intervene.