As kids grow older, they often begin to experiment with some things that they may not have tried at a younger age. In recent years, the number of teenagers who drink has risen, as well the percent of kids who use drugs or tobacco products. One of the main drugs that young teenagers first experiment with is marijuana.

With many street names for the drug such as chronic, bud, green, and many others, marijuana seems to have become a gateway drug for kids to start experimenting with other harmful drugs without knowing the effects that these drugs have on their bodies. Marijuana may not be the strongest drug available, but it has more harmful effects on teenagers may think. Marijuana causes mood swings, in addition to slowing down hand-eye coordination. It can also lead to paranoia, and does as much damage to the lungs as cigarettes do. One of the biggest rumors about the drug is that it is not addictive, but at a young age, teens can become dependent on it to handle problems such as stress, depression, or just to feel good.

Other drugs that could fatally hurt a teen or sometimes even kill them are ecstasy, cocaine, crack, and many other hard street drugs. Ecstasy and cocaine are tied together because some producers of ecstasy can put cocaine into their pills, which can be very deadly for consumers. The effects that this has on the body are worse even than the effects of marijuana. Users will experience a hyperthermia-like state if they take multiple pills at one time because of the rise in body temperature. This can often lead to dehydration, seizures, liver failure, and muscle breakdown.

Even with all these drugs and their negative effects on the teenage body, alcohol has still has killed more teens than illicit drugs by over six times. Forty-two percent of teens are less likely to ever use drugs than those who do not have their parents talk to them about the dangers of drugs on a daily basis.