AHS Views

If you don’t think addiction help is a growing industry, read on. Inhalants are used by more 12-year-olds than marijuana or prescription drugs. This is not surprising  - for a 12-year-old, inhalants are easier to get than either one. Kids that are using inhalants at age 12 may well graduate to prescription drugs and marijuana within a few years. In fact, if you follow the surveys like I do, you can see it. For the most part, kids start to move on to other drugs as soon as they get into high school where alcohol, marijuana and prescription drugs are plentiful. Parents should be well warned about the dangers of inhalants and prescription drugs, which are now epidemic. A recent study from the National Inhalant Prevention Coalition and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health services Administration presented more evidence that addiction help services will be necessary in the not too distant future. Over 20% of kids aged 12 to 17 are using drugs to get high. This will result in huge numbers of kids needing addiction help services. A parent needing to watch for 12-year-old kids using drugs is a reality and so will the addiction help more than half of them will need.