Abusing Prescription Drugs: what do my kids need to know?

[daijobu]

I was just listening to this essay on the radio, and I was wondering what my kids need to know about the abuse of prescription drugs.  There are prescription pain killers, academic performance enhancers (Ritalin, et al), and now Xanax is being ground up into a powder at parties??  My kids are at home now, so I feel like I have some control, but what happens when they see their colleagues at college prepping for exams by taking drugs?  

 

Back in the day it was all about pot, heroin, and cocaine:  if it was illegal don't do it.  Now I don't know what to tell them.  

[ocelotmom]

Well, if it isn't prescribed to you, it's still illegal. Totally disregarding all the other potentially life-altering affects of addiction or overdose, you can still get in legal trouble for it.

 

Especially in the case of crushed-up pills, authenticity is still a problem. If you didn't verify the pills before they were crushed and witness the whole process, it could still be contaminated with something dangerous.

[Lanny]

They need to know that people can and do die, just as easily, from an overdose of prescription medicines, or, a combination of prescription medicines, as they can from drugs that are illegal, such as Cocaine or Heroin. That's very common in the USA and if you live in a state like Florida, where there are "clinics" that do nothing other than write prescriptions, it is a bigger problem for you.  

[SkateLeft]

A lot of drug education programs try to teach kids to make good choices without really telling them WHY they should make good choices.

 

We're a science oriented family, so we approached drug education from a scientific point of view, using chemistry and biology. I used a lot of curriculum materials from the National Institute of Health Drug Abuse program. Back then, it included binders and VHS tapes. Now they have a swanky website for teens - http://teens.drugabuse.gov/

[EndOfOrdinary]

We talk about addiction including everything from food to heroin to exercise or video games.  We talk about drugs being anything which alters your brain chemistry - sugar, prescriptions, heroin, Ritalin, tobacco, whatever.  You are messing with your brain chemistry and knocking it off balance. it is that simple.  It does not need to be complicated.  Anytime you ingest anything you are messing with your body.  It is important that this concept is understood.  If you ingest food that is filled with chemicals, it messes with your body.  If you ingest a medicine to help with pain or focus, it messes with your body.  If you ingest water, it messes with your body.  The important thing is that you are attempting at all times to keep your body balanced. 

 

Germs are taking over, medicine might balance that.  Take too much medicine, then the problem swings the other way.  Dehydrated, water might balance that.  Too much and you have water poisoning.  Needing food, a banana might balance that but five handfuls of candy probably won't.  Too much eating and obesity is the result.  Exhausted, sleep might balance that. If you are stressed, Xanax might balance that, but so might half a dozen other things that are less dangerous.  I guarantee that a cigarette would make you feel like you balanced the stress, but artificially and then the stress comes back even worse.  It didn't really balance anything.  We discuss it in this way.  The general concepts help keep it open so that it is really about maintaining health and not certain things being okay and other not okay.

 

Dh is addicted to tobacco.  He often thinks that he 'needs' it.  We have had many discussions about how that just means his body has forgotten how to self regulate balance and the tobacco is easier.  Quitting the tobacco (Dh has tried a few times) is really hard and makes Dad sort of a jerk because he is trying to figure out balance after years of easy balance.  Marijuana (we live in a legal state) makes Dh feel like he is balancing stress, but ds can even tell you it doesn't really because he still has all the stressful stuff waiting.

[kbutton]

People need to advocate for themselves with their doctors. If I doctor is handing you something other than an OTC drug for pain, ask why. Do I need a narcotic for strep throat (it happens!)? For surgery? They need to know that some of these drugs contain both the hard stuff (opiates) and tylenol, so they can't take it with tylenol also. If you have a low pain tolerance and need an opiate for something that might not bother someone else, or you are having surgery and need significant pain relief, talk to you doctor about how you can protect yourself--can you take the strong stuff only at night? Would the doctor give you enough for x days or one week rather than a whole script? 

 

Lots of people who are addicted to pain meds started taking them for a legit problem, and MANY of them took these meds post-surgically. A lot of docs prescribe them with no follow-up, and many docs are very casual about it. Way too casual when they aren't the ones getting addicted.

 

If your child takes a legit drug for a legit reason and has trouble afterwards--withdrawal or weird physical symptoms, they need to find a doctor who will listen, not one that will make them feel bad for being weak. And then they need to reveal this information to every doc they ever see again to be sure that doc doesn't send them down a bad path--if they truly need pain meds for something, there are options, potential for follow-up, limited amounts the doc can prescribe, etc.

[raptor_dad]

A lot of drug education programs try to teach kids to make good choices without really telling them WHY they should make good choices.

 

We're a science oriented family, so we approached drug education from a scientific point of view, using chemistry and biology. I used a lot of curriculum materials from the National Institute of Health Drug Abuse program. Back then, it included binders and VHS tapes. Now they have a swanky website for teens - http://teens.drugabuse.gov/

 

For less biased science based approaches, I enjoyed Cynthia Kuhn's "Buzzed". My DW had Kuhn as a Pharmacology prof at Duke Med in the 90's. Now Kuhn is a tenured Full Professor. For more complementary medicine folks, Andrew Weil has "From Chocolate to Morphine". I haven't read it but I have generally liked Weil's books. These should give you a reasonable science perspective.

 

The social aspects, eg. drugs are illegal and users are more likely to be losers than the general population, are separate issues... 

 

[Arcadia]

When it was a kid, people were already abusing prescription weight loss pills. Not as common maybe but it does happen. Someone who is overweight would go to a family doctor for the pills then sell it to someone who is normal weight. I used to temp at a family doctor/general practitioner clinic for work experience.

If your kids are in competitive sports, medicine/prescription drugs has to be declared because it might show up in the random blood test. I forgot which ones have to be declared but the asthma drug I was on has to be declared for exemptions.