Teen Drug Abuse: New Era of Prescription Drugs
I Attended The Funeral of a Childhood Friend
I had a really good friend of mine die from a prescription drug overdose. Burying one of my childhood friends really changed my life…It made me realize that life is short, even for those of us that are quite young, and that every moment should be cherished and appreciated.
Teens Have The Easiest Access to Drugs
The death of my friend also made me realize that the epidemic of teen drug abuse has taken a disturbing and horrible turn for the worst! Prescription drug abuse is now destroying more teenage lives then ever before. The scariest factor of this is that teens have easier access then ever to go out and find their drugs of choice: Vicodin, Soma, Oxycontin, and other prescription drugs.
Things are not as they used to be…sure, if a highschool student wanted to go out and buy some pot, it surely wasn’t impossible. Even finding cocaine is not far out of reach for the majority of teen communities. However, finding prescription drugs is easy: it’s in your bathroom medicine cabinet.
I recently read an article about a 15 year old that took methodone from his father’s cabinet and sold it to a 12 year old…sadly, this girl died shortly after taking the methodone. A similar tragedy happened when a 17 year old gave his 16 year old friend GHB, causing the teen to die from the pills. It’s horrifying to hear about these deaths that could have easily been prevented.
Teens Dont Understand The Dangers!
Prescription drugs are no less dangerous then classic drugs (i.e. cocaine, heroin, etc.) if they are abused and taken as increased quantities. Oxycontin is a time released pain killer that is meant to be released into the blood stream over many hours. However, teens usually chew or sniff the pill, causing all 12 hours (in some cases) to be sent to the blood stream at once!
Because their parent takes something occasionally for a bad back or for chronic pains of some sort, certain teens seem to think that it can’t be all that dangerous. This couldn’t be further from the truth.
Teens Spread This Stuff Like Wildfire
In my highschool classrooms, I never could understand how people so nonchalantly talked about and exchanged various prescription drugs. It amazed me that students would take pain killers just to sleep through class, take ADD medications (when they didn’t have ADD) so that they could be back to being hyper after school, and take ridiculous mixes of pills on the weekend’s at parties just for fun.
Whatever happened to having a few beers at a party and calling that a fun time…Hell, what ever happened to getting super drunk with your friends off good old fashion shots of vodka. It’s horrifying to me that teens are moving towards using prescription drugs just for the fun of it. Someone really needs to do something.
What Can Parents Do To Stop This?
As a teen myself, I can speak as to a number of things parents should do to stop this epidemic. As far as me taking action, I’ve created my website and blog (www.UnderstandMyTeen.com) to educate parents of teens about the true life of their teens. I want parents to better understand the world in which their teen is living. It’s so much different then when you all were kids! I want to help you better relate to your teens so that you can be better parents and keep your kids safe…
- Talk To Your Teens: Make sure your teen is aware of the dangers of using prescription drugs. I have never personally taken pills for fun (I have taken 2 vicodin pills once because my wisdom teeth got pulled out), but I can tell you that my view of pills was forever changed after my friend died from them. Ever since his funeral, I take it upon myself to tell everyone I know that is somehow involved with pills about how my good friend died. I tell them exactly how he died so that they can have a vision and feeling about what they’re getting themselves into.
- Count Your Pills Weekly: Have a weekly count of your pills in your house. Keep track of how many you use weekly and check to make sure there are none missing ever. If there ever is, immediately talk to your teen and ask them about it (in a productive way…don’t scream at them ever. they’ll turn off and ignore you). Don’t accuse them right away, but now may be the time to dish them up a few news stories about the dangers of pills so they can have a reality check.
- Lock Your Drugs: If you think your teen might be taking your pills, keep your pills in an area where your teen cannot get to them. This can be a medicine chest with a lock, a locked box in your closet, etc. Just put them somewhere where your teen cannot get to them.
Stopping Teen Drug Abuse
It’s really important to me to help parents better understand their teens so that less teens have to die each year from tragic events. Attending the funeral of one of my childhood friends, seeing myself next to him in pictures from childhood, and not being able to see him anymore really kills me. I’ve created UnderstandMyTeen.com to make the world a better place.
Check back, and check back often. I plan on posting many blog postings relating to many topics that I’m sure will help you become a better parent. I hope that you enjoy my postings.
I miss you Rob!
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Tags: oxycontin abuse, prescription drug abuse, teen drug abuse, teenage drug abuse, vicodin abuse
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