The New Face of Youthful Addictions

The counseling staff at Goodwill is noticing a shift in the current face of drug abuse. It is getting younger and is now about addiction to prescription drugs. There is a very good reason as parents we should pay heed to this change. The children there (18 years olds in a lot of ways are still children) are getting the drugs from your medicine cabinets. Their favorites seem to be xanax, oxycontin and hydrocodone but most pain relievers and psychoactive drugs will do. This is a good time to get rid of any old medications by stowing away anything that could tempt an underdeveloped mind. Prescription meds now account for 3x’s the number of deaths in this state as compared to cocaine and heroin which used to be a parent’s worst nightmare. And it does not take much to be charged with drug trafficking when you are talking about prescription meds. Just 4 grams. That’s right. So our part as parental coaches and mentors includes making it very difficult for our sons and daughters to have access to any of these medications. In the wrong hands or mixed with other substances they can be deadly. We also need to be having conversations about these medications. Too many young people come up to me at Goodwill and say that they did nothing wrong by taking mom or dad’s pills. It’s not like they did something illegal…

I should also add for general interest, that drugs are showing up in our ecosystem in ways we couldn't imagine. To learn how to properly dispose of drugs, visit http://www.pinellascounty.org/utilities/getridofit/medications.pdf