[Shope, Jean T, 2004]

Cost of Addictive Behavior (individual and family implications)

Asides the fact that drugs and alcohol rehabilitation add billions of dollars to the nations health care costs, the addictive nature of these substances also implies direct costs to the families concerned. Adolescents have to spend hundreds of dollars for buying drinks and drugs and peer pressure would encourage them to engage in culpable actions. Typically, an alcoholic or drug-abusing adolescent would meet his financial needs by stealing from his own house. The next step is lying and borrowing from friends and in the worst case submitting to demands for sexual favors in order to sustain the costly habit. The individual surrenders his self-respect to the addiction and also losses trustworthiness in the society. As discussed earlier, alcohol and criminal behavior go hand in hand. Substance abusers have problems managing their emotions and typically show more aggressive behavior....
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