Prescription Drugs a growing problem for teens

sabrina moore

What Drugs are your Teens finding in your closet?

As prescription drug usage continues to climb to an overwhelming new high, it may come as no surprise that misuse of prescription drugs among teens is on the same steady and alarming incline! Children as young as 12 years old are obtaining and misusing prescription drugs. It seems like the objective of getting “high” not only includes the desire and curiosity of obtaining an altered state of mind but also needing to feel at “peace” with oneself. This new trend that leads teens to seek out opoids, pain relievers, sedatives and mood stabilizers increases stress in everyone’s daily lives. What we as parents need to be most concerned with is well, everything.

Prescription drug misuse that develops in the teenage years tends to stick around much longer and outlasts the typical experimental years, making teens overwhelmingly susceptible to become fully addicted to prescription substances in their lives. Also, misuse can have a severe and even life-threatening impact on our teens’ lives. It is this last point that seems to keep missing its target, as teens as well as parents tend to believe that prescription drugs are safer to use than your typical “recreational” or non prescription drugs. It is this misconception that is in need of major reconsideration. According to the recent data one-third of teens think there is “nothing wrong” with using prescription drugs that are not prescribed to them. The attitude is that they are being responsible and are exercising control because the drugs are viewed as “safe” as compared to the alternatives because they are prescription and their parents’ take them. Both parents and teens need to know prescription drugs are as harmful and dangerous as illegal or recreational drugs.

The current data is enough to keep you up at night. 9.1 % ages 12-17 misused prescription drugs in 2005. In 2008, 1.9 million teenagers between ages 12 and17 abused prescription drugs and 1.6 million abused prescription pain killers. Prescription drugs are also the most commonly abused drug in children ages 12-13 years old. It’s probably safe to assume these numbers have steadily risen within the past couple of years. What we need to ask ourselves, our friends, our children, their friends and most importantly all the other parents and peers that directly and indirectly influence the lives of our teens, is how we are contributing to this trend? The trend most likely starts with our own medicine cabinets. This easy accessibility leads to teens obtaining the drugs without any barriers. Even, if you are savvy enough to know to keep your own prescriptions safeguarded and padlocked, your teens can and will find a way to get to them. As parents of teens it needs to be your responsibility to make sure these prescription drugs are not accessible to your teens in your home. Nobody can change that but YOU!

It is definitely time that we expand the dreaded drug “talk” with both our own children and with peers in the home and in the communities to include the risks of prescription drugs. They can have a devastating impact on our own and on our teens’ lives.

Over 60% of teens report that prescription pain relievers are easy to get from parents’ medicine cabinets. Do you want to be the reason for starting your teens’ prescription addiction?

To find out more information visit the following links:

http://www.theantidrug.com/pdfs/prescription report.pdf

http://www.preventionworksct.org/docs/SDFSC/PDF/National_Center_for_Mental_Health_Promotion_and_Youth_Violence_Prevention_Brief.pdf