The Question Of Teens And Drugs Deserves Our Undivided Attention

Drug use among teenagers has reached tragic levels. No matter how vigilant you are, your teenagers are going to be exposed to drugs at school, the very place you believe to be a safe environment. Mrs. Reagan’s ‘Just say no to drugs’ campaign was a complete failure. The fact is that teens view adults as old stupid people that don’t know their head from a hole in the ground. Adults, try as they may, face an uphill war in protecting their children from the ravaging effects of drugs.

The challenge is made more difficult by the fact that most of us have prescription drugs in our medicine cabinets. When confronting the issue of teens and drugs, you have to give them a rational argument that differentiates between necessary medications and street drugs. This isn’t easy. Some well known prescription medicines are being peddaled in schools as a way to get high. Teens don’t know that these prescriptions are issued in duplicate or triplicate, as a method to control the use of certain narcotics. Not having experienced a legitimate need for such drugs themselves, they may well conclude that their parents are enjoying some high that they are somehow being forbidden.

One more problem with educating children on the issue of teen drug abuse is that society does not make any distinction between drugs. Some pharmaceutical drugs are needed, but when it comes to our youth and drugs, we tell them that every drug is bad. This is patently false. Some teenagers require medications for actual problems. Used improperly, that medication can get a child high who doesn’t need it. Sometimes, that drug can have disastrous consequences when used as a ‘recreational’ drug.

Kids are not able to make those distinctions. For example, a patient with extreme pain due to arthritis or cancer, could be prescribed codeine or another opiate to help with the pain. Kids don’t comprehend that this patient doesn’t get high. That med only eases the pain. However, in the world of teenagers and drugs, this narcotic becomes an opportunity toget a head change. They don’t know the difference.

One huge deception that encourages teenage drug abuse is the fable of weed. This street drug is made out to be the first step to drug addiction, thrown in the same bag as lsd and ice. The second that middle school kid tries pot, the child sees that even though it gets them high and they like it, they can hide this new habit from their parents and it doesn’t make them crazy. They come to the conclusion that the rest of the warnings about kids and drugs are lies. That’s the reason why they fall into the grip of the really dangerous drugs.

As a society, we need to teach our children. Explain the effects of drugs. Lsd, crack, heroin and drugs like ‘ecstasy’ can destroy their lives or kill them. Tell the truth. We can help our kids.Addiction is a serious problem in our society today but with the “proper” education we can teach our future generations the realities of addictions and drug abuse.