TEENS MISUSING LEGIT DRUGS
By J. Grant Swank Jr. (12/20/05)
Abusing prescription drugs. That’s the big fright adults have concerning adolescents today.
Adults are used to taking prescription drugs — exampling same before their families — so the children are dittoing.
At the same time, teens don’t seem to be lured by alcohol and nicotine as in previous years. Marijuana use has gone down.
High schoolers are taking tranquilizer, barbiturates or sedatives for nonmedical use, according to New York Times’ Kate Zernike. High school seniors = 14%. 10th graders = 11%. 8th graders = 7%, according to Monitoring the Future Study, the latter regarded highly by feds.
Oxycontin is a popular prescription drug with teens. Oxycontin is dangerous regarding its lure for overdose and creating dependence.
Only 1% of high schoolers reported using heroin.
In other words, legal drugs are more of a problem today than illegal drugs. Again, there are many adults using legal drugs daily and therefore the youth seeing them use legal drugs is a bait for the youth to do the same. So many use prescription drugs; it’s the flow of the culture. It’s routine. Therefore, youth are wedding in to that routine.
On TV there are commercials for drugs as well as soft drinks. The two are side by side. Both fit into everyday functions. Legal drug misuse then has become the overriding problem in the US.
Sedatives and inhalants are the main lure. That includes Ambien – Oxycontin sleeping pills.
Internet purchases of drugs can be dangerous for one never knows if the product is counterfeit or real.
"The study, conducted since 1975, surveys a nationally representative sample of about 50,000 students in 400 public and private schools.
"Officials said the overall picture was good; the number of students who reported using steroids or smoking marijuana, which the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy considers the gateway to other drug abuse, has gone down or held constant. Over all, the office said, 700,000 fewer students were using illicit drugs in 2005 than in 2001.
"’These are remarkable declines,’ said John P. Walters, the director of drug control policy. ‘Almost every single illegal drug is down, and some dramatically.’"
Copyright © 2005 by J. Grant Swank, Jr.
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