A study by the Department of Education , Training and Youth Affairs found that young people are portrayed by the media as alcoholics, drug abusers, criminals, bludgers and lazy. This was a survey of attitudes to media coverage of adolescents . Respondents to another survey found that more than half of respondents thought that stories about young people were negative and only 18% could remember positive stories in the twelve months previous to the survey. (Coleman 1999, p. 9.).

It is true that adolescent development is a complex issue, yet most adolescents are able to successfully negotiate their way along the path from childhood to adulthood with little or minor “emotional disturbances”, or ominous “lures from Satan”. However there are many factors which can lead an adolescent onto a destructive path. Adolescence is also a period of initiation and experimentation. In Australian society most adolescents must learn to cope with pressures from

The 1998 Survey found that 35.1 % of the young people surveyed aged between 14 and 19 years have used cannabis in the past twelve months. 47.8% of males and females were offered cannabis in the last year, and 45.2% had used cannabis in their lifetime. These figures had all increased since the same survey in 1995. The table below reports the findings in detail.

Some topics in this essay:
Youth Affairs, Public Health, Mac Donald, Mc Callum, Drug Adolescents, John Howard, Mc Callum1994, Health Welfare, Drug Australian, , mc callum, adolescent drug, drug abuse, drug taking, drug taking behaviour, taking behaviour, mac donald, et al 2000, reid et, santrock 1996, al 2000, survey found, reid et al, taking behaviour slee, mac donald 1999,