Drug abuse among teenagers has reached tragic levels. It doesn’t matter how on top of it you are, your teenagers will definitely be introduced to drugs at school, the very place you believe to be a safe environment is the very place they will get assaulted with the problem.. Mrs. Reagan’s ‘Just say no to drugs’ campaign fell flat on its face. The fact is that teenagers perceive adults as old stupid people that don’t know anything. Adults, try as they may, face an uphill battle in protecting their children from the devastating effects of drugs.
The battle is made tougher by the fact that most of us have prescription drugs in our bedroom drawers. When confronting the issue of teenagers and drugs, you have to present a rational argument that differentiates between necessary medications and street drugs. This isn’t easy. Some common prescription medications are being peddled in schools as a way to catch a buzz. Teenagers don’t know that these medications are issued in duplicate or triplicate, as a way to control the use of specific narcotics. Not having experienced a legitimate need for these drugs themselves, they may well conclude that their parents are experiencing and liking some high that they are somehow being forbidden.
One more problem with educating kids on the issue of teen drug abuse is that society does not differentiate between drugs. Some medicinal drugs have a place, but when it comes to teenagers and drugs, we say that every drug is bad. This is a deception. Some children need medications for a legitimate condition. Not used as prescribed, that medication can get a child high who doesn’t need it. Sometimes, that medication can have disastrous consequences when used as a ‘recreational’ drug.
Children are not able to make those distinctions. For example, a person with severe pain due to arthritis or cancer, may be prescribed codeine or another opiate to ease the pain. Kids don’t comprehend that this patient doesn’t get high. That medication only dulls the pain. However, in the world of teenagers and drugs, this narcotic becomes an opportunity to get high. They don’t know the difference.
One big deception that encourages teen drug use is the fable of pot. This street drug is posited as the first step to drug addiction, thrown in the same category as PCP and ice. The minute that grade school kid tries weed, the kid 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 teenagers and drugs are lies. That’s why they fall into the trap of the insidiously dangerous drugs.
As a society, we need to teach our children. Teach them the effects of drugs. Cocaine, crack, heroin and drugs like ‘ecstasy’ can destroy their lives or kill them. Tell the truth. We can defend our children.Addiction is a terrible problem in our society today but with the “proper” education we can teach our future generations the realities of addictions and drug abuse.
Tags: teen health, teens and drug abuse