Teens Say Prescription Drugs Easier to Buy Than Beer

If you have to give 3 or 4 tips on preventing teen tobacco usage, what would they be?

My 14-year old girl teen (str8 A’s in Honors) had a friend over with her to my best friend’s home for a 4th of July party – all of us went. The friend took 15 xanex from the medicine cabinet (a brother inlaw was staying with them temporarily and they were his but he’s a father of 4 too).

I discovered 4 of these pills that my daughter took away from her friend (she thought she got them all). I found them as she was about to leave the house to go to a youth center (suburbia.. very white bread. she was acting suspicious. I discovered inher rather small pocketbook: 2 Smernov Ices wrapped in paper towls from our cabinets (only had 7 of them & we dont have much other alchol around), a knife, a lighter, and 4 of my vicadine pills (for my knee injuries) that she removed from a pill box in my car (I keep there when I need them). She is a straight A student in honors… never in trouble.

I talked to her for 45-minutes about it. Then we talked with her friend and his mom (single mom) for another 45 mintues. I told her I was not going to punish her because the natural consequence is she must now regain my trust. But the other day I had a discussion prompted by an unrelated incident (seeing someone she was not allowed to see – custody issue, court orders, etc.). I warned her that above all else, if she were caught with such things in the future that she and I would not be having a discussion; it would be her and a police officer. I have police friends which is the route I would take initially. I told her that in no uncertain terms would it be tolerated. I now toss her room every couple weeks.

She seems to have gotten the message loud & clear. Needless to say, she is not allowed with that friend in any unsupervised situation. Over all, I think she tells me the truth but sometimes I have to press her for it. I’m rather intuitive and observant over her behavior so that helps.

RX drug abuse is unbelievably common in jr. and high school. Mixing anti depressents and anxiety meds with alchol can be deadly. She had no idea what her buddy had taken. I also read my buddy of 38 years (we grew up together in NJ) the riot act. He has 5 children 2yrs to 17 yrs in age… needless to say, all their RX’s are locked up now. I lock mine up in a safe file cabinet. But, it’s tough not being able to trust these kids and they are GOOD kids. We actually lock my office and the master bedroom with an external security lock on the closet door where such things are now kept. My teens mom had done the same but the teen PICKED the lock.. I suggested she get a better lock.

If you find pills in your children’s possession, you can call Poison Control at 1-800-222-1222 (use a magnifying class to help read the number or marking on the pill). Recently, they have identified 4 different pills that I have found… 2 were my teens from her Rx’s but 2 were contraban.

Just because you THINK you can trust you teen doesn’t mean you can. I always say to my teen: Trust with Validation.

And talk to your teen’s friend’s parents too.. if you haven’t met your teens parent’s do it… higher security comes in a united front

Last night my husband and I watched something on TV about lowering the drinking age again. I know a lot of people oppose this, personally I don’t. However, my husband summed it up pretty well and we both know from our own experience (lost one friend to prescription pills, knew another who watched his friend die from smoking crack, 3 different suicides from drug addiction, I am 42, most died under the age of 30, my friend’s sister got married and found out after that her husband was addicted to cocaine, she gave him the choice, “stop doing it or leave” he left, so I know where it comes from) and that is if you are the type of person who wants to get “high” you will find a way.

I think one of the reasons that its so easy for kids to get prescription drugs and take them is simple, we think its OK to just take a pill to feel better. Instead of dealing with our problems, adults are turning to prozac or xanax or whatever pill the Dr prescribed so we don’t have to face life. How different is that they doing drugs? The only difference is we are doing them legally with the prescription. There is a saying that we used to quote:

“Reality is for people who can’t handle drugs”

Thinks about how most adults deal when they have to go through a loss of any kind, instead of the old fashioned “tough it out and move on” they run to the Dr for prozac or other antidepressants so they don’t have cope with it. Antidepressants do have their place for those who really need it, but not everyone is clinically depressed. My MIL just passed from Breast cancer, she was diagnosed 4 1/2 years ago, with Metastatic breast cancer, my dad has parkinson’s and was diagnosed 3 months ago with prostate cancer. The night we were waiting for MIL to die, my brother calls his wife is leaving him, next day she says, no thats not what I want. I have reason to get into bed or take pills to not feel anything, but instead I do Yoga, I cry once in a while and I look at all the good I do have.

Basically my point is that Teens are running away and trying to feel good instead of coping with life, aren’t most adults doing the same thing.

Personally, I would rather my kid use marijuana or have a drink once in a while then ever touch prescription pain killers. The first two options are not good for her, can be very dangerous, but prescription pills are killers and way more addicting then any other drug out there. If you have a prescription in your house for any pain killers, hide them, lock them up, etc. Make sure your teen and their friends can’t get to them.

Also remember there are many parents out there who grew up in the 60’s and 70’s doing drugs and never stopped, they think its OK. We have friends who talk about the benefits of Vicadin when they needed them, these are people in their 50’s, so many adults think its an acceptable thing, therefore they don’t worry about it when their kids do it too. That is part of the problem. Stealing prescription drugs from parents or buying them to take is not new (Qualudes in the 60’s and 70’s and valium in the 80’s), but we are parents are more aware of the harm they do in the long run. So that is why we need to talk to our kids, tell them what the deal is and more important, get them help fast if we think they are in trouble.

FYI, I was a good kid, good grades, etc and spent 2 years of my life from 17 to 19 high most of the time. Drinking age was already 21, but I quit at age 20. I rarely drink now. But the reality is kids don’t know how bad things are for them, talk to them and talk early, by the time my mom warned me about drugs, she sounded like Charlie Brown’s teacher. Also use practical applications to your kids life, my daughter dances, I said “imagine dancing on stage drunk or with a hangover”. She told me she gets dry heaves from not eating, I said “that is how a hangover feels only worse”, use what they say, how they think what bothers them to let them know the bad it can do.

I’m 44 and have a son that is turning 18 in October. I re-married last year, and now we are a blended family. My husband had custody of his two boys, well they’re actually men now. Ages 22 and 19. We all live together in a
4 bedroom condo.

Both my husband and I smoke cigarettes, and we
both experimented with drugs as teens but are happy to say that our kids have not even as much as touched a drop of alcohol, smoked a cigarette, done pills, or smoked pot, crack,
or any other substance.

How do I know?? Because I am a long-time pot smoker and I smoke outside of the home, very discreet and very carefully. When I say long-time, I mean for years not the amount I smoke.
I only smoke at night, very late, a few
nights a week. I have a movement disorder,
and my doctor said he has no problem
with me smoking weed.

I am so surprised that my son hasn’t turned to
alcohol actually. His father was an alcoholic as was my mother and they both died in their early ’50s… Such a sad waste.. So, it’s in my son’s DNA or genes to be an alcoholic or drug addict.

The reason I wonder why my son hasn’t turned to alcohol is b/c first, he has Asperger’s. It
is a high functioning form of Autism and he
has a hard time dealing with things..

Also, he is having an incredible tough time at
school, always has since 1st grade and will
always have a problem.. The school system
allowed my kid to slip through the cracks, so to speak, and I won’t have any more to do with it. My son was having panic attacks last year, bouts of depression and crying, and many times I would find him in the fetal position on his bed, rocking back and forth. He doesn’t need to go through this. It will only lead to drugs and alchol. For me, it did and I don’t want that to happen to him!

We are going to the school tomorrow to sign him out and he is going to get his GED then get help at ARC in the Autism Support Center on social skills, teens in transition, which is actually just for guys… He also will be given an aptitude test to find out what he will be good at, when he starts working.

Take care all and good luck!

I am a therapist who works primarily with the teenage population, and I can tell you that the use of prescription among our youth is becoming a real problem, and it is growing. High school kids are taking and mixing medications with side effects that could be lethal. A trend in the affluent suburb I work in is cough syrup. Kids take an entire bottle and mix it with soda to get them “high” at school. Parents, watch out for this in your medicine cabinet.

Also they are abusing Adderall and other medications, of which they are not prescribed.

I like to ask all my kids, “what are the popular drugs at your school” and start from there. This opens up the path to communication and asking questions. Parents need to get educated on these trends so that they can talk to their kids before they are tempted to experiment through peer pressure.

We have started a parent group in Lake Stevens to fight prescription drug use…particularly to eliminate drug use and drug dealing in our schools. JOIN US! or find out how to stop the madness in your community. We are having a community education night in Lake Stevens at Cavelero mid-high at 6:00 pm on October 19th. or to hear more e-mail drugsrhistory@gmail.com

Summer programs for troubled teenagers are organized to provide the troubled youths an opportunity to improve their skills or to attempt something new during the summer vacation. The students are offered by variety of moderate art and other subjects. The teachers in camp first try to address the talent in child and then make perfect that child in to his or her talent.

Look… safe fun is fun as long as its safe… problem is, who knows what is safe until they realize it is unsafe. Maybe some people with the foresight and good family and friends, but what happens with you end up living with a son, brother, cousins who becomes addicted to drugs.

I found a social network that is a great platform for the family and friends of addicts/alcoholics to help each other. It’s ixaddict (dot) com