# Why are teens so addicted to drugs and piercings? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 29, 2015, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-teens-so-addicted-to-drugs-and-piercings/726453 "2015-07-29T06:34:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2015, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-teens-so-addicted-to-drugs-and-piercings/726453/21 "2015-07-29T14:55:00Z")
And when did they stop? When 35yr olds starting dressing the same!������ ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2015, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-teens-so-addicted-to-drugs-and-piercings/726453/22 "2015-07-29T15:51:15Z")
> [@electroFAYSEE](#): > > They are always up to no good, no matter what! This particular statement is, at best, an exaggeration, and at worst, prejudiced, poisonous falsehood. As for a serious, factual answer to the question posed in the thread’s title, part of it has to do with the ways adoloescents’ developing brains are different from the brains of adults. If you really want to explore the subject in detail, I recommend [The Teenage Brain](http://www.amazon.com/Teenage-Brain-Neuroscientists-Survival-Adolescents/dp/0062067842/ref=sr_1_1_twi_2_har?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1438184350&sr=1-1). A couple relevant excerpts: > [@](#): > > The problem for teens is that their undeveloped frontal cortex means they have trouble seeing ahead, or understanding the consequences of their independent acts, and are therefore ill equipped to weigh the relative harms of risky behavior. > [@](#): > > In general, teen brains get more of a sense of reward than adult brains, and … the release of, and response to, dopamine is enhanced in the teen brain. This is why sensation-seeking is correlated with puberty, a time when the neural systems that control arousal and reward are particularly sensitive. > [@](#): > > Addiction happens because a drug or another pleasurable stimulus strongly activates these synapses. As a result, these very plastic and active synapses respond by strengthening their connections, which causes more dopamine to be released in response to each stimulating experience. Hence the craving builds much faster in the adolescent brain than in the adult brain: neurons are more active to start with and have an exaggerated plasticity in response to exposure to the addictive stimulus. Addiction, therefore, is more strongly “hardwired” into the adolescent brain, and as rehabilitation centers well know, detox is much harder and fails more often in adolescents, too. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_T-Cups](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@Sir\_T-Cups](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_T-Cups)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2015, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-teens-so-addicted-to-drugs-and-piercings/726453/23 "2015-07-29T15:59:59Z")
“It’s not fair that we have to tell kids they can’t do drugs. ‘I’m sorry, but this is just the perfect solution to every problem you have, and you can’t use it’. Drugs are so perfect that they will literally ruin your life, that’s how perfect they are” - paraphrased from Louis CK ---
**Author:** ![zweisamkeit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zweisamkeit/32/4360_2.png) [@zweisamkeit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zweisamkeit)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2015, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-teens-so-addicted-to-drugs-and-piercings/726453/24 "2015-07-29T18:21:54Z")
> [@control-z](#): > > It also seems like teens are far more homosexual/lesbian and bisexual than in the past. Certainly to some extent because it is mostly acceptable to come out of the closet now, but I wonder if it’s also just a trendy way to be and gets attention/sympathy. > Elderly rambling over, get off my lawn! I’d say it’s far more likely that, in addition to increased acceptability of coming out, there are fewer teens (and adults) who repress their sexuality. When society is SO opposed to something (LGBTQ in this instance) to the point where those who are part of it are called deviants, perverts, hell-bound, disgusting, depraved, etc etc… A lot of LGBTQ people will suppress their sexuality to the point where it’s hidden even from themselves. So I’d think there are a lot of teens who haven’t felt the need to suppress their sexuality in the first place (or at least not nearly as severely). ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2015, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-teens-so-addicted-to-drugs-and-piercings/726453/26 "2015-07-30T11:21:20Z")
I recently watched Quadrophenia again. It’s the perfect teenaged angst movie. “They finally threw me out My mum got drunk on stout, My dad couldn’t stand on two feet, As he lectured about morality. Now I guess the family’s complete, With me hanging round on the street Or here on the beach.” Pete Townshend We all have our foibles. ---
**Author:** ![DinoR](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dinor/32/2821_2.png) [@DinoR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DinoR)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2015, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-teens-so-addicted-to-drugs-and-piercings/726453/27 "2015-07-30T12:25:22Z")
Their brains are [still under construction](http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124119468). ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2015, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-teens-so-addicted-to-drugs-and-piercings/726453/28 "2015-07-30T12:36:23Z")
> [@control-z](#): > > It also seems like teens are far more homosexual/lesbian and bisexual than in the past. Certainly to some extent because it is mostly acceptable to come out of the closet now, but I wonder if it’s also just a trendy way to be and gets attention/sympathy. > > Elderly rambling over, get off my lawn! Or it’s just Ok to admit you have at least some attraction to the same sex, even if your dominant attraction is to the opposite. It’s not a trend, it’s that teenagers are not getting the shit beat out of them just for looking “gay” - at least, not as much. I never listen to any old grandpas who go around saying “Kids these days”. Kids these days are pretty good, actually. Most of the reports around Millennials are not that bad, other than the fact that they all stay home. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2015, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-teens-so-addicted-to-drugs-and-piercings/726453/29 "2015-07-30T12:37:26Z")
Teenagers scare the living shit out of me They could care less as long as someone’ll bleed So darken your clothes or strike a violent pose Maybe they’ll leave you alone, but not me ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2015, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-teens-so-addicted-to-drugs-and-piercings/726453/30 "2015-07-30T15:41:35Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > I never listen to any old grandpas who go around saying “Kids these days”. Kids these days are pretty good, actually. Most of the reports around Millennials are not that bad, other than the fact that they all stay home. Agreed. But kids these days are more likely to have tattoos, piercings, or unnaturally-colored hair. And in earlier generations, such things were often the sign of the rebellious, the countercultural, the punks. Thus, some of the geezers (including maybe the OP?) may be drawing the erroneous conclusion that there are more “bad kids” nowadays. ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2015, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-teens-so-addicted-to-drugs-and-piercings/726453/31 "2015-07-30T15:51:56Z")
As for drugs, IMHO there are simply more varieties around and they are easier to get than in the past. Yah sure, at the turn of the 20th century things like cocaine and morphine were legal, but I don’t think they were glamorized for kids in those days. Now we have club culture that kids will be aware of even if they never go to a club, and the club drugs are easy to get. I don’t really know how to get drugs now- maybe I could with a lot of effort. In high school and college I could get you-name-it easily (I probably should have done more when I had the chance, studying ultimately didn’t do so much for me). Just from my personal observations, it seems even easier for kids to get drugs than it was 20 years ago. I don’t know about the piercings- independence? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-teens-so-addicted-to-drugs-and-piercings/726453.md?page=1)