Are we winning the war on drugs? The answer is yes, if you mean “illegal” drug use by teens. On the other hand, the answer is a resounding NO! if you mean this:
A new drug of choice for teens has many medical experts on edge.
These drugs are so easy to get because many of them are sitting in medicine cabinets across the country.
The good news is research shows that these days less teens are abusing illegal drugs and alcohol.
The bad news is a recent study released by the National Institute on Drug Abuse shows that more and more teens are using over the counter medicines to get high.
“I think there’s a lot more than what are being reported to us,” said Dr. Chris Holstege, Medical Director at the UVa Health System.
The numbers show the greatest increase in the abuse of cold and cough medicine.
You see, cough medications typically contain dextromethorphan, which not only supresses the cough reflex, but in large enough doses sends you on a trip the likes to which some of these kids parents might have flashbacks:
Teens use these drugs because they have a high similar to the one you would get from using LSD.
“But, it also has adverse affects, such as serotonin syndrome, a thing that can cause you to be hypertensive and cause your blood pressure to get too high,” said Holstege.
The results showed that one in every fourteen high school seniors said they used cold medicines “fairly recently” to get high.
Most of these medicines are made with Dextromathorphan, or DXM.
I’ve been hearing about DXM use for some time now. It just goes to show, the more you supress something, the more people find ways around that suppression. And frankly, I’d rather have my kids smoking a joint than doing “Dex” or DMX any day of the week.
I did everything that I wasn’t supposed to do at least once. Just let them smoke weed for fucks sake, at least that won’t fry themselves crispy burnt before they can decide that they don’t want to be burnt. They don’t have their frontal lobes in yet people, they are going to do stupid shit so make it easy for once. Make a little access to some not too stupid stupid shit okay?
This new generation is just shocking! What ever happened to good, wholesome highs like those from model airplane glue?
The only reason why I didn’t do that one was because I liked good math grades and my dad told me if I did the above mentioned act those would go away.
Having been raised in NYC, I consider myself fortunate that more benevolent (& interesting) highs were always readily available.
In my boring suburban town, one of my friends went to the hospital (twice) after chugging a bottle of cough syrup in high school.
Nobody talks about why someone would want to get high. Nobody talks about the hypocrisy of Big Pharma pushing drugs on everyone. Nobody talks about how some drug use might be benevolent or have a positive effect. And nobody but nobody talks about what they did as kids or are doing now.
‘Soup, I’ve lived with television lately for the first time in a decade & the pharmaceutical advertising simply astounds me. The insistency of these ads is on par with that of any enterprising street dealer, back in the day.
The very same citizens who might find the dealers’ presence on their corner proof of societal collapse will fully accept & absorb BigPharma’s pitch, with its its mask of authority & good intentions.
I’m with you homemadesoup. This is something that has been on my mind BIG TIME lately.
One of my best friends has a son who is a senior in high school. He’s one of those kids that, from the time he was born, had an “old soul.” He is briliant and extremely sensitive.
I’ve had long talks with him recently and he is certainly depressed because he can see that the world is majorly fucked up and doesn’t know what to do about it.
So, he starts smoking pot and his parents go crazy. They make him take urinalysis tests and get him in to see a therapist. And you’ll never guess the outcome of that one – he’s now taking anti-depressants – you know, those ones that tests are showing INCREASE the chance of suicide for young people.
I’m mad as hell about all this, but I think he is probably just one of thousands of young people who need to know that life has meaning beyond all the crap they are sold. If we can just keep them alive and aware instead of medicating away their angst.
please do everything you can to get his parents to see the dangers of antidepressants. When he decides for himself to get the frick off of them it must be a very slow weaning pricess. I was only on Lexipro for three months and the side effects/withdrawal was horrendous. Scarey shit for sure.
I’d absolutely second this advicE!
Frankly, imho, the current practice of placing young people on anti-depressants as an initial treatment for any deviation from perceived ‘normalcy’ (say, hyper-consumerism) is nothing short of criminal abuse.
One more thing…
Here’s a spot from Bill Maher that I just love. You have to go in the clip to about the 6 minute mark to hear what I’m referring to. Or you can just sit back and enjoy a little Maher humor for 6 minutes.
The ‘war on drugs’ is now almost 100 years old (beginning in earnest with the Harrison Act of 1914) & has cost untold billions of taxpayer dollars, millions upon millions of lives & the systemic deterioration of civil liberties that only expands through time, given increasingly sophisticated tools.
Meanwhile, the basic instinct that drives us to intoxication (common also in many animal species)persists in our nature — meaning that if one means is inaccessible, another will be found. Ergo these results.
If sanity were to prevail in our national drug policy, the realization that losing a 100 year war necessitates a fundamental change would seem obvious at every level of our governance. Alas, the losing strategy has proven all too profitable for interested parties.
in a little shop in San Antonio a few months ago. If you won’t talk to your cat about catnip who will?
Heck, I’ve always offered mine home-grown!
Many suffering alkies wil drink cough medicine to get their fix because of the alcohol content.
I feel the same as homemadesoup, no one talks about the whys of drug use. The use itself is just a symptom of the disease. What can we do to help the kids that need it the most? Listen to them for starters.
Leezy, I’ve known serious alcoholics to drink far worse than cough syrup (perfume, for example) when there’s nothing else available.
Oh, I sure know some stories I have heard at meetings but won’t share them here. One of my sponsees wanted to drink badly but was afraid someone in our small town would see her buy it so she bought mouthwash instead and drank the whole bottle.
That is why I feel it is imperative to get to the “root” of the issues once the drinking has been stopped.
I wasn’t aware of your history in the rooms, Leezy. Please forgive my approach.
As for getting at the roots: absolutely!
A close friend is currently dealing with alcoholism/co-dependent denial in his immediate family. His approach tends to focus on these root causes & to advise concerned parties regarding same, but I remind him that the alcoholic must first get sober before she can consider the root causes in a productive way. She can barely see her own feet clearly at this point, let alone begin examining of her own nature.
I’m 36, and I remember Robitussin being a cheap high back when I was 16.
And NOW people are getting all freaked out? That cow left the barn a LONG time ago…
No kidding..I’m a lot older than that and cough syrup was a cheap legal high for kids. What I really don’t understand is why when it’s known that alcohol in cough syrups can cause these problems-why hasn’t it been taken out a long time ago and replaced with something more benign?