Kids Find New Ways To Get High

Parent Cafe
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<p>Just what parents don’t want to hear…more ways for kids to get high!</p>

<p>Reprinted from the NBC-11 (San Jose, CA tv station) website:
<a href=“News – NBC Bay Area”>News – NBC Bay Area;

<p>Kids Find New Ways To Get High
Over-The-Counter Medicine Is Convenient Source</p>

<p>POSTED: 5:20 pm PST February 16, 2005
UPDATED: 2:49 pm PST February 17, 2005</p>

<p>SAN MATEO, Calif. – Undercover agents with the San Mateo County Narcotics Task Force don’t want to reveal their identity, but they don’t mind showing off the different types of drugs they have found at Bay Area schools.</p>

<p>And they say today’s kids are constantly finding new ways to get high.</p>

<p>Cough medicine, for instance, has become a popular item with teens, especially NyQuil and Cloricidin Cough and Cold – also known as “triple-C” or “red devils,” NBC11’s Ben Mohr reported. </p>

<p>These items contain a drug called DMS or Dextromethorphane, which taken in large amounts can cause a person to hallucinate.</p>

<p>Kids can find these items at any drug store.</p>

<p>“Your kids and my kids can buy it if they have the money, and a lot of stores are realizing those products are being shoplifted,” the drug agent said.</p>

<p>Some body sprays have also become a cheap way to get high.</p>

<p>“They spray inside their elbow and put it up to their face,” he said.</p>

<p>The drug agent actually learned about the technique from his son, who saw kids getting high at school.</p>

<p>Even household items can be tempting to teens.</p>

<p>Super glue remover may not look like much, but in the wrong hands it can become a potent drug.</p>

<p>Drug agents say the biggest problem their seeing at school is with methamphetamine. It’s almost as popular as marijuana, but parents know very little about the drug or the warning signs.</p>

<p>Teenage girls use meth to lose weight. They drink it with juice or milk in morning to suppress their appetite. They then go on a strange junk food diet.</p>

<p>“The traditional thing that they force feed themselves is a Nestle Crunch Bar and Coca Cola, which gives the body what it needs to get thru the day,” the agent said.</p>

<p>Investigators say if a kid is using drugs, most likely they are hiding something in a stash can, like a fake water bottle.</p>

<p>They make stash cans in all shapes and sizes, from a compact disc case to a soda can.</p>

<p>The drug agents say each day they are seeing new ways teens are taking and hiding their drugs.</p>

<p>So parents have to get as much information as they can from the people who know what is going on at school, Mohr reported.</p>

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<p>Sigh, will crawl into my cave now…</p>

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<p>how bout on life? jk, this isn’t something i should joke with tho… :eek:</p>

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<p>ive heard of dex, but some of these others are seriously messed up. omg.</p>

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<p>A couple years ago I took a college class on drug addictions (state required for CADC cert). I couldn’t believe all the things kids (or adults!) could and do use: propane from BBQs, propellant from canned whipped cream, etc. </p>

<p>Also learned the ingredients in meth and some other homemade things. Very enlightening and my opinion was that EVERY parent should be required to take that class! :eek:</p>

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<p>In Georgia, we can no longer purchase OTC decongestants containing ephedrine and psuedoephedrine off the shelves at the drug store. It’s kept behind the pharmacy register and you have to stand in the Rx line and ask the clerk for it. It’s a major ingredient used in manufacturing meth. </p>

<p>Meth labs are the 21st cent. version of moonshine stills around here. </p>

<p>Then there are the kids who “palm” their Ritalin at school and sell it to others.</p>

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<p>Oh yeah. When my stepson was in HS and on adderall we would give it to him in the morning and WATCH him take it. The dr had warned us that kids would sell it at school, and this was something I could completely see stepson doing :rolleyes:</p>

<p>Also, I remember some kind of fertilizer (used in meth?) that is mainly bought in bulk by farmers. That is now monitored and anyone <em>not</em> a farmer who buys it is checked out. In fact, maybe they (non-farmers) can’t even get it anymore–I’m not sure if they’re regulating that in each state now but I know they were talking about it.</p>

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<p>all of those things listed in the article have been going on for years… they aren’t some extremely “new” thing.</p>

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<p>Don’t know whether this is just in our state, or federal, but I have read that there is legislation proposed to make a number of these cough/cold remedies either Rx, or at least “behind the counter” so they are not as easily obtained. Pain in the neck, but this is why.</p>

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<p>yes, but “going on for years” and “new” are fairly relative terms :wink:
When some of us were kids (jr high, HS, college) they didn’t even HAVE ritalin. Sure, there were drugs, but when I was in school, there certainly was no meth. Largely pot and booze. A few hard-core kids were doing cocaine and other pills, though.
This is good info for us old fogies (and I don’t even consider myself that old!). </p>

<p>Woops, I guess ritalin wasn’t mentioned specifically in the article quoted, but hopefully you get my meaning :)</p>

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<p>what i meant was, the cough medicine and whatnot… people have been doing that as a drug for years now… </p>

<p>Actually i have a story about that, </p>

<p>My bosses wife went to the store before winter to “stock up” on medicine - she likes to go buy her allergie medicine, nyquil, dayquil, cough drops, you know, just random medicines in case someone in the house gets sick so they have something. she went to pay and they wouldn’t let her buy it. apparently our state is regulating how much of medicine you can buy at one time. she had to buy half, then come back another day and buy the other half.</p>

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<p>I didn’t know that about cough medicine, that it could cause hallucinations. Once again, thank you CC people for opening my eyes. </p>

<p>Last year I went to a required drug talk at my D’s school. And I e-mailed my oldest S that I learned what a “bud” was, and a “40.” He e-mailed back, “Gee, I guess some people really DO learn something from those talks . . .”</p>

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<p>By the way, Mstee…what is a “bud” and a “40”?</p>

<p>As for hullucinagenics, I’d be totally freaked out (even as a teen) by the idea of seeing something that wasn’t there, especially since I’d have no control over what that something might be.</p>

<p>I don’t get the one about sniffing certain “body sprays” in the crook of one’s elbow. How does one get high on such a thing?</p>

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<p>40 is a forty ounce of beer (my preferred choice back in high school BTW) Bud is just another term for weed. I thought the term ‘bud’ was a little dated now though. I have heard it called just ‘green’ lately. High school kids will do anything to get high. From sniffing white out and glue, to huffing spray paint, to drinking Nyquil this is nothing new as these methods have been around since I was in high school in the early 90s.</p>

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<p>joev-- Though the term bud may be dated, I just learned it this fall, same for 40. And the Nyquil thing, learned that today. I’m guessing there’s a heck of a lot I don’t know . . . </p>

<p>poetsheart–I agree. The thought of having hallucinations scares me–that’s probably why neither of us is up on the current drug lingo (or the old drug lingo, for that matter).</p>

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<p>I thought a bud was a canned beer- who knew?
Seriously
drugs that I had access to in the 70’s ( when I was 16-18 yrs old
acid ( blotter- windowpane- yellow sunshine)
Alcohol
Amphetimine ( various- mostly criss cross-)
Angeldust
Canabis ( various types include stronger forms like Thai stick)
Cocaine
Codeine
Darvon
Hashish
Heroin
Mescaline
Mushrooms ( psycilocibin)
Opium
Peyote
Qualuudes
Valium
as you can see we didnt have to resort to sniffing paint fumes or our elbow to get high
My concern for kids is to understand why they are compelled to alter conciousness through drugs- which I why I advocate physical experiences- rock climbing- snowboarding etc to get the adrenaline rush in a healthier manner
As you can see i ran with a fairly wild crowd- I doubt if my daughter has even ever smoked a joint let alone scraped the strychnine off of a peyote button.</p>

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<p>I watched a group of teens being denied the purchase of spray paint the other day for this reason.</p>

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<p>The US military recently allowed certain American Indian troops to use peyote during religous ceremonies.</p>

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<p>I would have figured that they would be using the spray paint for graffiti</p>

<p>It reminds me of when a friends son ( who has impulse control- and feels compelled to graffiti on unmarked surfaces) was going out for Halloween and casually asked where the wire cutters were.
He apparently didn’t think that would be a red flag! :eek:</p>

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<p>fwiw, the cough medicine thing is not new. People were doing it when I was in college twenty years ago.</p>