credit

[Texas warrior]

Why do people assume that teens will abuse drugs, are there not as my teens that do drugs safely as there are teens that fucked up there lives with drugs. People say "ow no your more likely to ruin you life than any thing else". People give us no credit what so ever, It all dipeneds on the person. Most of the teens that get killed or fuck up there lives with drugs would have done it as adults any way because of who they are.

[Gothicdeer]

That's not the way it is around here

[PerpetualImperfexion]

I'll admit that society does really look down on us younglings, even though in the end we're the ones who will be running the country when they all die. When you say drugs I assume you mean legal ones such as alcohol and tobacco products. If you're saying the only reason they don't allow young people to buy these drugs is that they don't think we're responsible, you're wrong. Another reason would be that these drugs effect a growing body differently. I suppose society might also be trying to do us a favor by keeping us away from that shit before we're able to learn the consequences. If you were able to smoke at say 14-16 smoking would be a much more popular thing I would think. When you smoke you have a higher chance to die at a much lower age. So in other words lower smoking age = more smokers = lower average age expectancy

[Texas warrior]

I'll admit that society does really look down on us younglings, even though in the end we're the ones who will be running the country when they all die. When you say drugs I assume you mean legal ones such as alcohol and tobacco products. If you're saying the only reason they don't allow young people to buy these drugs is that they don't think we're responsible, you're wrong. Another reason would be that these drugs effect a growing body differently. I suppose society might also be trying to do us a favor by keeping us away from that shit before we're able to learn the consequences. If you were able to smoke at say 14-16 smoking would be a much more popular thing I would think. When you smoke you have a higher chance to die at a much lower age. So in other words lower smoking age = more smokers = lower average age expectancy

Not just drinking, smoking, doing drugs, teens aren't trusted worth a dam. I will agree with the smoking thing, but those things are almost as dangerous as a adult.

[ImCoolBeans]

I think it's mainly because teenagers make decisions based on emotions rather than logical thought, no matter how logical you like to think you are. We do this because our prefrontal cortex (in your brain) is not fully developed until you're about 26. This part of the brain is involved in higher level decision making and putting logical thoughts/ideas together.

Teens aren't trusted and given much responsibility because of that fact. And not just with drugs, alcohol, smoking (as you've stated). Adults can go down those roads as well, but how often do you hear about a 45 year old man smoking weed for the first time? Or getting into coke or heroin for the the first time in his life? Not often. This all come to the surface at a younger age because of the poor decision making tendency among teens.

So there is actually a lot of truth and credibility in adults saying that teens make bad decisions, because historically it's been proven, and biologically it's basically wired to happen. Do we really deserve the credit you're talking about? I hate to say it, but we really don't. I can't even begin to count the innumerable amount of stupid mistakes I've made, and I'm very confident that I'm not alone in saying that.

[Modus Operandi]

People assume teens will abuse drugs because teens habitually make poor decisions. Most of the time, this isn't through any real fault of their own; there's science (http://www.aacap.org/cs/root/facts_for_families/the_teen_brain_behavior_problem_solving_and_decision_making)to show that teens use a totally different part of their brains to make decisions than adults do.

I agree: it sucks. Especially for those of us who can and do use our heads. But it's not just blind discrimination.

[Bones]

I think it's also connected to the fact that our generation is viewed as the 'worst generation yet.' The fact that teens do make bad decisions coupled with that generally bad view of the generation are probably what causes adults to have such little trust in teens.