Introduction to this blog series is here.
Part Three: Abuse of Prescription Drugs
Rather than focusing on alcohol consumption as a fear and something that parents need to know about, I felt a major focus of this talk was to tell of the rise in something that pretty much didn't exist when my generation was young: frequent abuse and misuse of prescription drugs.
Preface: my information:
In the time since I was a teen it became legal for drug companies to advertise prescription medications. Hearing about drugs all the time on TV, the radio, and in print ads in magazines and newspapers has shown kids that many drugs exist. Showing them as beneficial influences kids to think that prescription drugs are helpful and good and HARMLESS (despite the side effects listed that sometimes are scary including death one side effect).
Prescription drug use by children has risen, especially drugs that enhance performance or help kids do better in school, i.e. drugs for ADD and ADHD. (In the 1980s when I was a teen hardly any child took a prescription drug routinely, antibiotics for strep throat or an ear infection was occasionally used for the short term.)
The use of coffee has risen since I was a teen and teens now drink coffee (a rarity in the 1980s).
Drinks which are high in caffiene and advertised to enchance sports performance or to keep you awake exist now when they didn't exist when I was a teen. These are available in grocery stores, vending machines, and convenience stores and gas stations (everywhere). There are ads everywhere. Kids show up at sports practice with the drinks and they are thought to be necessary by some young kids. Enhancing performance with a substance or with supplements like electrolytes is seen as a good thing to do.
Kids see use of Red Bull and other drinks whose main purpose is to get the caffiene into the body.
I just saw a commercial for a new product that you open up and inhale, it's caffiene, so you don't have to drink something to get the caffiene into your body.
Thus the use of drugs by kids and teens is something that kids are exposed to daily (reminder: caffiene is a drug). Even seeing Mom and Dad drink coffee and say it helps them wake up in the morning or stay awake through the day or evening gives kids a message.
From the lecture:
The use of prescription drugs has risen and is a major concern.
There are two kinds of drug seekers: recreational to get high and kids intentionally abusing drugs to help them focus on learning to help them perform better on tests so they get higher grades.
Kids seek pain medications primarily, and second is Xanax (anti-anxiety drug), for recreational use.
General issue:
Kids do not know what drugs are what. Police officers said they find kids with pills who say they are one thing when really they are something else. For example the kid who bought the drug from a fellow student thinks it's Ritalin intended to help them focus for taking a test when really it is a heart or epilepsy medication stolen from someone's parent.
There are thousands of pills and even one pill can have different appearances based on what company manufactures it. The generic brand looks different than the brand name. It is hard for adults to know what a pill is let alone untrained kids and teens!
Kids steal their relatives or parents drugs to take themselves or deal. Minor aged visitors to a house can steal drugs from the homeowner.
(I do not know why the police never said to lock up prescription drugs. I know there is a national campaign to encourage parents to keep drugs under lock and key.)
The police officers advised us to throw away old drugs or drugs we no longer need to take. Get them out of the house.
1. Over the counter drugs
Parents do not usually lock these up and they are in most homes. Cough syrup is one medication, and other cold medications can get people high if abused, meaning, if taken in higher quantities than the label says is for the illness.
Tweens and teens are doing things like getting high by drinking cough medication. The drug dextromethorphan aka "DXM" can get a person high if taken in certain quantities.
(I add: This wikipedia article about the "recrational" use of DXM explains it and even gives dosing information for different states of being high. Our kids have access to the internet and can read all this stuff for themselves!)
Kids can think that over the counter meds are harmless including taking high doses of them. They think because we can buy it in a store without a prescription that it cannot harm, which is not true!
2. Prescription drugs for ADD & ADHD
The use of drugs for ADD and ADHD starting in the young ages is something that kids know about. If they are not taking them they know kids who are.
(I add: Example: in Boy Scout camp the nurse must dispense the drugs to the kids. Announcements are made to all the Scouts about when they must go to get their drugs. The kids who don't take any drugs see the long line of kids standing for their medication. That is just one way that kids wind up knowing who has ADD or ADHD and who takes meds for it. I have seen kids standing on this line at summer camp and it shocked me. Some take medications for seizures or diabetes but most use it for ADD/ADHD, they even tell the other kids this.)
Kids know that if a person without ADD or ADHD takes these drugs they will have enhanced performance for studying or test taking.
Kids sell the ADD and ADHD drugs to kids who are not prescribed it by doctors.
See "general issue" above. Kids may buy a drug from a fellow student at school thinking it is a ADD drug when in fact it is a heart medication or any number of other drugs. Misusing these drugs is dangerous!
3. Taking other types of prescription drugs "just" to get high
See "general issue" above. Kids can buy drugs in school from fellow students in order to get high. They claim the pills are anything and everything when in fact they are pills for anything and everything. Kids may deal medications for high blood pressure or epilepsy or anything!
(I add: if a child reacts to a medication and they seek medical treatment, health care providers can have trouble helping them if they don't even know what they really took!)
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The police officers said that students deal or share all of these drugs in the school hallways. This dealing or sharing of prescription drugs is common and frequent.
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It was said at the lecture that kids today have an idea that prescription drugs are safe, because they are prescribed by doctors and are so common. They said the kids don't seem to understand that if a person takes a drug that a doctor didn't precribe FOR THEM that it can be dangerous.
I add: I think that kids today are not learning enough about the human body and common diseases and disorders, and about drugs and what they do and how.
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The police stressed that the use of prescription drugs has become normalized in our society and they do not carry any connotations of danger or health risks in the minds of today's kids and teens.
They did not really say what parents should do to educate their kids. I think they were just trying to get the audience to know this is a real danger that exists so they'd be aware.
My advice is to not just get rid of excess or old medications in your house, but to also talk to your kids about prescription drugs, how they can be dangerous when taken in wrong doses or by people who don't need them. Parents need to tellt heir kids that there are so many prescription drugs, and they are hard to identify and how dealers can and do lie about what they are trying to sell you. -- so never, ever, buy or take drugs that someone sells or gives to you!
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The police said local kids can phone in anonymous tips to 888-KID-CHAT (no caller ID on that line) to report dealers and other illegal drug activity that you may know is going on in school. All tips must be investigated by police.