Teenage
drug abuse is at an all-time high. No pun intended.
Youth between
the ages of 12-17 are being reported using illegal drugs.
If you are a
parent, you know that teenage drug abuse is not an imaginary problem
in our society, but instead is a very real, dangerous and quite far
spread activity amongst teens.
Unfortunately, to their child's
detriment, parents sometimes like to delude themselves with the
fantasies that a good private school, active participation in the
church or synagogue’s youth group program, strict curfews,
and
parental generosity will somehow deter their growing child from the
dangers that lurk amongst peer groups, pushers, and the darkness of
the dance clubs.
Teenage
drug abuse is a
commonplace occurrence, and
parents as well as caregivers need to be alert to the signs thereof,
even in the most innocent of settings.
Frequently,
you can hear teens making statements to their parents, "it's not
like I am smoking crack" or "it's just a little pot, it
can't hurt me".
If you're suspicious about your teen's drug
abuse or illegal drug usage, the best way to find out is by
administering a teenage
drug test
from home.
If
you're hesitant to attempt testing your child and suspect that your
teen is abusing marijuana (aka pot, maryjane, chron, weed, herb, bud,
dope, grass) there are simple THC (Tetra Hydro Cannabinol) detection
wipes that you can purchase.
These wipes can be used on any surface
which your teen son or daughter may be smoking near, such as the
walls of their room.
If the test comes up THC positive, the next
step would be to administer a drug test either through saliva, hair,
or urine.
Not
only can you test for THC found in marijuana, you can also test for
other common drugs such as; cocaine (aka coke, snow, crack), ecstasy
(aka XTC, X, Adam), opiates (aka heroin, codeine, opium, brown
sugar), amphetamines (aka speed, whizz, amph, billy, phets, sulph),
methamphetamine (aka speed, meth, chalk or in its smoked form, it is
often referred to as ice, crystal, crank, or glass), barbiturates
(aka barbs, downers, barbies, barbita, seconal, red devils, blue
devils and yellows), benzodiazepines (aka tranks, downers, benzos),
oxycodone (aka oxy, hillbilly) and phencyclidine (aka PCP, angel
dust, supergrass, killer weed, KJ, embalming fluid, rocket fuel and
sherms).
Other
drugs that teens may be addicted to and can be tested for are
propoxyphene (PPX), tricyclic antidepressants (TCA) methadone (MET),
morphine (MOP) and the popular LSD also known as acid.
Not
only can teenagers abuse illegal drugs but they can also abuse and
become addicted to prescription drugs found in your medicine
cabinet.
Commonly misused prescription drugs are Vicodin, Xanax, Valium,
Adderall, Ativan and Fioricet.
The
more that teenage drug abuse will continue to claim many victims, the
more teenage drug testing kits will become popular.
The most
important step in helping a teen to avoid becoming another statistic
is simply by not allowing rationalization of drug abuse to take root
in the mindset of your growing child. Instead, children should be
taught from the earliest years to take responsibility for their own
actions, and thus many of the drug myths so prevalent in
today’s
teenage society will not find any more believers.
This approach will
not eradicate teenage drug abuse but it will close off one more
avenue by which teens and their pushers have been able to delude
themselves into using substances.
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