Are you clued up about teenage drug abuse? Ever heard your kids mention these terms?
- Pharm Parties
- Skittle Parties
- Trail Mix Parties
- Fish Bowl Parties
It doesn’t matter what they want to call them. Mom, Dad, your kids may be partying it up at a DRUG BUFFET! Drug abuse amongst our kids has grown to epidemic proportions, and we need to PROTECT our kids! It’s up to us to educate ourselves about the real dangers of prescription and over-the-counter (OTC) drug abuse and to discuss the lethal risks with our children. Parents, you need to be more vocal; tell them that getting high on legal prescription and OTC drugs is just as dangerous as getting high on illegal street drugs.
The ugly side of addiction is all too often brushed under the carpet. Don’t let your kids glamorize drug abuse in any form, and don’t be afraid to show them the horror they will be facing as an addict! In my mind, it is a lot better than the alternative; the likelihood that your child will overdose and you having to identify them on a slab at the morgue!
“Research shows that kids who learn about drug risks from their parents are half as likely to use drugs as kids who haven’t had that conversation. Every day 2,500 kids ages 12 to 17 abuse a pain reliever for the first time. In 2008, more than 2.1 million teens ages 12 to 17 report abusing prescription drugs. Among 12 and 13-year-olds prescription drugs are the drug of choice. Prescription and over-the-counter (OTC) medications are fast becoming the new ‘party’ drugs for many teenagers.”
The new trend among youths is known as “pharming” – that is, kids using prescription and OTC drugs for recreational use. Parents, you must put this on your radar screens – one in five teens have used powerful narcotic pain relievers for non-medical reasons. Many parents are not aware that their own medicine cabinets are potential sources of these drugs for teenage abuse. Young people also purchase these drugs online; you must constantly monitor their internet use.
We’re NOT talking about kids mistakenly taking the wrong dose of legal medicines or taking a stronger than necessary medicine for an ailment. We are talking about drug abuse – kids using prescription and OTC drugs on purpose to get high. This practice is life-threatening and a kid can die doing it for the first time.” Again, talk to your kids very openly and ask yourself this question. “Should I worry more about what people may think, or the safety/well-being, and for that matter the very life of my child?” And while you are at it, please copy/paste this URL into your computer address line. This YouTube video is shocking, to say the least. So, are you clued up about teenage drug abuse?