The three articles we chose to touch upon were; system and non- system youth, drugs within the

schools, and drug use amongst peers.

The first article looks at system and non-system youth and drugs. System youth can be defined as a homeless youth, a youth living within a shelter, or a youth who is living within a group home or foster care. This article explore the idea that young people who are within the system already have so many struggles and that drug use only perpetuates this. Contrary to popular belief, non-system youth are more likely to use illegal substances than system youth, and this information is important for those running shelters and working with system youth. The article looks at youth homelessness further, and reasons in which why young people become homeless. Although the highest percentages of homeless youth become homeless due to issues relating to their sexuality, others are evicted from their home because of poor behavior and poor choices. These behaviours and choices can be, and is highly linked to drug use.

The second article explores drug searches and substances within schools. It talks about the percentages of youth that have engaged in alcohol, marijuana or other substances before 12th grade. It touches upon the policies set within schools regarding drug searched within schools. The school feels they are coming from a preventative measure, however students argue that this is an invasion of the their privacy. Lastly the article talks about the research that has been done between drug search procedures and school substance abuse.

Through this they found that 86 conducted searches due to suspicion of drug activity, rather than random searches. Lower socio-economics schools were less likely to conduct random searches then higher socio- economic schools.

The last article listed opened up about drug use in adolescents. The article talks about the social aspect of why adolescents engage in drug use as well as the behavioral triad. In their research they found that; 338 addicts have received help from the age 20 under, 2010 aged20-34, and 156 aged 34-49. The article also talks about every day stress and peer pressure playing a large part in adolescence engaging in drug use. In regards of offering the adolescents help it expressed that in the article as well. This article talks about the differences in youths behaviors when under the influence as well as treatments and managements.

Question one: Why are you as a group so passionate about having impact in this area. Discuss in detail? I believe that we chose this as a topic, and became very interested and passionate about this is deeply linked to our placement experiences. Between having our placements at CAMH, high schools, or residential treatment centers; it became very clear to all of us just how big of a problem substance use is for young people. We wanted to further explore our own options in terms of offering services to the young people we work with, and how can we be of maximum assistance. In terms of being passionate about this topic, I think we all really

struggled with the idea that a young person has to personally want to stop using drugs in order to stop, and it almost doesnt matter what the consequences are. I know as a group we wanted to explore this notion further as it hasnt personally affected us other than working with young people experiencing similar challenges. Question two: Our role in prompting understanding, education and advocacy is to address the main issues with adolescents and drugs use. We wanted to provide the reader with quick information for them to understand that the stresses in an adolescents life can cause them to engage in drugs and alcohol. We created a website as well as made a facebook page linking anyone who views the page to the website. The two media resources open up and talk about all the aspects of an adolescent and the use of drugs. It describes a brief description touching on the topics of; Peer Pressure, substance use in schools, homelessness and substance use, and lastly how to get help. Some of the main issues that we would like to address are that there is not enough awareness and that it can happen to anyone. The purpose of the website and facebook page is to supply the reader with the information that they would need in just a few pages to fully understand and may be able help provide support for someone who is struggling with drugs and alcohol in their life. We wanted the readers to know how to get help and know there is help and support for an adolescent who is using or be able to find help and support someone they know is using. Question three: Our group chose stop judging and get educated on drug abuse involving youth as our advocacy statement. As a society it has become

our natural instinct to judge what we dont know or understand. This is especially true in regards to individuals who struggle with drug abuse or addiction. If we are going to advocate for these individuals it is important for us to be aware of what this type of abuse or addiction looks like, the effects it has on the individual, and the resources out there to help them. It is also important for us to approach that individual with an open mind and respectfully. Our group believes that our advocacy statement reflects what was mentioned above which why we chose it. Question four: The thing with addiction is that it is a family disease. When it comes to addiction there are always several other parties involves, other than the actual individual using substances. You have people such as; friends, family members, educators, employers/colleagues, emergency service workers, youth workers, and so many more. Ideally, within our social change project we tried to reach the individual who has identified that they have a substance abuse problem, or that they think that they might have a problem. With that, it is impossible to only reach one individual; with our website, and our facebook page we have provided followers with not only drug treatment resources, but also resources for the families. We felt as a group that families are the most directly affected, and sometimes they need treatment too. Things such as these we carefully looked at, and provided information for on our website. In addition, one of the biggest issues when it comes to addiction is the lack of education, but amount of judgment. We have provided information for those who have a substance addicted individual in their life with information on what they can do,

why this person might be addicted, and what it looks like for them to be under the influence.