Drug Abuse

At ages 16 and under, alcohol and drug use and abuse can be extremely dangerous towards the human body during their adolescence. Local senior student attending Pimlico State High School, Kurtis Norman (16) is aware of the rapid rise of teenage drug abuse in today's society and has planned a bright future ahead of persisting to put an end to it.

Over 62% of teenagers are estimated to have had their first alcoholic beverage by 15 years of age. This type of dramatic drug increase is what Kurtis is attempting to stop for future generations. As a community, we need to follow in his footsteps and act upon this situation.

After graduating Pimlico High, Kurtis hopes to seek employment at the National Institute on Drug Abuse (The Science of

Drug Abuse and Addiction) and visit schools all over Australia to give seminars on the harmful long term effects of drug abuse.

"I've had a few family members pass away due to drug abuse and I hope to eliminate the amount of people dead each year to stop families suffering over beloved lost ones like mine did,"

Especially due to the social structures at schools and the amount of increasing peer pressure, teen-age drug abuse is at its highest and continues to increase.

"Even certain parenting techniques for school stu-dents where the parents think that providing teens with weed and other drugs is doing them a favor contributes to the idea of abusing drugs," says Kurtis.

Kurtis Norman is like a star on the rise and we wish him the best in his future endeavors.