One survey of over 8000 young drivers (17-24 years old) carried out by Auto Trader, which is a UK motoring magazine and website, showed a dangerous trend towards driving under the influence of either drink, drugs or both.
In today's binge drinking and drug abuse culture amongst young people it is unfortunately no surprise that as many as 17% of those surveyed admitted regular use of Cannabis (Marijuana), more alarmingly 12% frequently use the dangerous class A drug Cocaine, and 10% revealed regular use of Ecstasy. However, the most considerable risk comes from upwards of 10% admitting that they regularly drove their vehicles whilst being under the influence of drink or drugs.
When questioned regarding driving under the influence, over 40% felt "fine" to drive their vehicles after abusing drugs and 31% found it acceptable to drive after drinking alcohol. A considerable proportion were unaware of the legal drink driving limits for alcohol consumption and consequently 8% had already had a road traffic accident while under the influence, with a further 11% admitting a near miss.
Based upon road traffic accident statistics, over a third of deaths on the UK's roads involve young people aged 25 or under, so this is obviously a serious issue. This equates to the death or serious injury of a young driver or passenger every hour on average across the UK.
Other recent statistics include the number of younger teenagers using drink or drugs. In fact, 1 in 7 people admitted to Accident and Emergency departments across the UK last year were under 14 - a total of over 2239 cases. Many people have blamed a surge in advertising for alcoholic drinks between 3 and 5pm which corresponds to when children have arrived home from school. Of course, the government spends around ?3.7 million on anti-drinking and alcohol awareness campaigning, but this is dwarfed by the estimated ?200 million spent on advertising by the drinks industry.
The average UK starting age of Heroin use in many towns and cities is just 15 years old, so we have an obvious duty to deter young people from getting inadvertently caught up in drug addiction through misguided experimentation.
So what can be done about this?
Well, many parents are unaware that home drug test kits and alcohol test kits are easily obtainable and can be used to act as a strong deterrent. They can also be used by teenagers as a valid reason why they can't take drugs when put under peer pressure. Being able to say "Sorry, I can't take drugs because I get tested at home" really can make a difference.
The responsible use of home drug testing products (with open communication and co-operation) can play a pivotal role in keeping children and teenagers safe and can help to mend relationships and build trust. Some people ask whether testing removes trust from a relationship, but we firmly believe that the substance abuse has already done that in many instances and home testing can be used to rebuild trust.
How to accelerate the entry of the young people on the labour market? A study on the "World tendencies of the young people employment" that the International Labour Office has published draws up a pessimistic report on the situation of the younger than 25 years old people, regarding the labour market. There is a world deficit of decent employment opportunities: a young person out of three searched for work without success and gave up completely in the search of employment or started to work for an income lower than the poverty line of 2 dollars per day, note the authors of the report at the end of their work. Of course, the situations differ largely according to the geographical areas in review. Sub-Saharan Africa thus shows a strong activity ratio for the young people, but it concentrates also the majority of the young poor workers, superior to that of South Asia. And even if the situation has improved during the last ten years, one nevertheless counts in these two areas 4 young people out of 10 who work and who remain poor, with less than 1 dollar per day to live. The developed countries are confronted with another problem, linked in particular to education. The International Labour Office notes indeed that the lengthening of the educational process results mechanically in a later entry on the labour market... when this entry occurs. However, a person who does not succeed in finding an employment is likely to rock in the category of the "discouraged young people" who are neither at school, nor employed. This is a vulnerable category confronted with a difficult process of rehabilitation in the labour market and which is likely to feel useless. In Central Europe, this category represents 33,6 % of the people less than 25 years old. It goes down to 13,4 % in the developed economies and the European Union. The International Labour Office prevents that for the economy, the presence of discouraged workers represents a wasting of human resources and potential of production. Moreover, the inactivity constitutes not only one wasting of the capacities but also a risk for the companies. On this point, only the developed countries and the European Union draw their pin from the play. These two zones are indeed the only ones in the world to have recorded a strong fall of their rate of unemployment of the young people during ten last years. From 1995 to 2005, it descended from 15,2 % to 13,1 %. a rate which is "only" 2,3 times higher than the adults’ unemployment rate, whereas in the majority of the areas the young people were three times more likely to be unemployed than the adults. On the whole, the International Labour Office counts in the world 85 million unemployed young people, to which 300 million young poor workers and 20 million discouraged young people are added. To fully benefit from the productive potential of the young people, the International Labour Office estimates at 400 million the number of decent employment necessary. Therefore, the creation of decent jobs for the young people must have priority to transform into a positive development force.
Both Christopher Evans - Drug-aware.com & Marcus Laval are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Christopher Evans - Drug-aware.com has sinced written about articles on various topics from Acne Treatment, Aging and Medicine. If you feel you would like more information on drugs, or to purchase drug or alcohol test kits for use in the home, visit us at . Christopher Evans - Drug-aware.com's top article generates over 12100 views. to your Favourites.
Marcus Laval has sinced written about articles on various topics from web development, Parenting and Stock Exchange. Marcus Laval is a senior analyst with an experience of more than 20 years, who has written more articles on social policies and published them at . Marcus Laval's top article generates over 8100 views. to your Favourites.