AHS Views

Kids who drink a little or take drugs are much more likely to use them as much or even more when they go to university or college. Alcohol, and some drugs, are so acceptable in colleges that they are encouraged by the culture to step things up. As they do so, they’re even more likely to become heavy drinkers and alcoholics when they get out of school and a significant percentage of them will need professional alcohol or drug addiction help to quit.

Fortunately, many universities and colleges are now offering alcohol and drug education. University of Western Washington is one of the latest to step up to the plate and offer these services for all students, including those who have just arrived.

They will also soon be putting up ‘informative’ posters around their campus and on student doors and will have advisers going to classrooms to talk to the new students.
They’re basing this on a study done about 10 years ago – the actions done included putting door-knockers on dorms and ads in a campus newspaper. It reduced alcoholism by 20 percent over the three years that the campaign ran.

It’s too bad that school resources, which are often short to begin with, have to be spent on this kind of deterrent – parents are paying for their kids to go to college for an education that will set them up to do well in their life careers, not to get them to stop drinking or not get caught up in the drinking culture in their school.

But, really, it’s going to come down to the parents. Parents have to be aware that they have to handle the problem well before university comes around.

The younger kids start to drink, the higher the chances they’ll continue.

If you can keep them from drinking while in their early and mid-teens, the chances of them remaining sober are 50% greater than if they drank or took drugs at that age.

If you can keep them from drinking in high school, there’s less chance they will fall prey to the alcohol culture when they get into college.

And, if they can avoid getting into the alcohol or drug culture in college, they’re less likely to drink when they leave.

But it’s really vital that parents start this at a very young age. Kids are exposed to drinking and drugs at a very young age; they need to be prepared. They need to already understand the dangers of what they would be getting into if they drank or took drugs BEFORE they are offered them.

There are many resources available to help parents educate their kids – just look online for alcohol or drug education and the info will be there.

And if you can’t keep them from drinking or taking drugs, you must get them into a good drug or alcohol rehab program as soon as possible – one that will give them that education, and get down to the bottom of why they’re taking drugs or drinking in the first place, and help them with those issues so they can stop – regardless of their environment.

Of course, one of the best ways to learn is by example. If parents don’t use alcohol or drugs as solutions to problems or to ‘have a good time’, the kids are more likely to follow in their footsteps.

This applies to prescription drugs as well as street drugs. Prescription drug addiction is now just as common as with other drugs.

Bottom line: If you look for non-drug solutions to enhance your own physical and emotional well-being, and teach your kids to do the same, you’re off to a very good start.

Alcohol and drugs ruin lives. They are now so common and available that teaching your kids about them is a vital step in raising them.

Worried that your son or daughter is taking drugs and you don’t know about it? You should be. On the average, kids use drugs for two years before their parents find out. Some parents and schools depend on random, and mandatory, drug testing to detect drug use early so they can get addiction help before there are any disasters. But mandatory drug testing is often frowned upon as a violation of privacy. A new drug testing program has been initiated by the Board of Education in Boardman, Ohio that might just fit the bill.

The new testing system does testing only with parental approval, and the results go directly to the parents. That way, the parents have control over the information and over what is to be done about it. The parents pay $22 a year to participate in the program.

In some cases, they might want the school to know about it so whatever the school system is for disciplining and reporting the information can be applied. But parents can, instead, choose to keep the information to themselves, deal with their children privately and possibly even get them into a drug rehab program.

Parents usually find out their kids are on drugs because the signs have become unmistakable: grades go down (and not just from A+ to A), the kids get moody, they’re more disassociated from the family and, often, friends – they’ve ditched their old friends and now have new ones (with whom they are taking drugs). Sometimes the parents don’t even find out until a really dangerous incident occurs – like a traffic accident or even a trip to the emergency room.

Some people have asked why the parents don’t just test the kids themselves. Good point. It might strain the relationship between parents and kids to do drug testing no matter who does it. And the school probably has easier, and less expensive, access to labs that evaluate the tests.

Obviously, this is something parents would have to discuss with their kids. They have to understand that many kids get involved with drugs due to peer pressure, and sometimes they just can’t resist. If they understand that, and the parents do a little research and are able to give their kids plenty of examples of good kids getting caught up in drugs and even getting addicted or overdosing, kids might understand that their parents are not doing it because they don’t trust them, but because they love them and do understand that doing the right thing isn’t always easy.

If you’re worried about your kids, discuss the possibility with them.

A recent news article in the UK discussed some new street drugs that are causing serious illness in teenagers. The drugs are called “Diablo” and “Eric 3″. Never heard of them? That’s because they’re pretty new, and not even illegal yet. Seems ridiculous that your kid could end up in the hospital or needing addiction help for a drug you’ve never even heard of, but it’s happening.

With all the existing drugs out there, I know it seems unreal and unnecessary to invent drugs that endanger our kids’ lives. And if anything does happen as a result of taking these drugs, nothing can even be done about it from a legal standpoint as they are not yet illegal.

A similar thing happened with a drug called “Meow Meow”. It was still legal until a number of deaths caused the UK government to quickly make it illegal. Once Meow Meow was out of the picture, Diablo and Eric 3 appeared.

It’s somewhat frightening to know that there are people out there putting together these chemical combinations that could be deadly and making them available to our kids. We not only have to worry about them becoming addicted or overdosing, we also have to worry about them being poisoned.

Really, the only way to fight something like that is by educating your kids. Also, if your kids have already taken drugs, and do tend to take them – even if they’re not serious about them and only take them when they’re at a party or something – it’s a good idea to get them into a drug rehab program so they can get down to the bottom of why they are taking drugs at all.

Taking NO drugs is the only really safe solution to the possibility of your kids taking something that could make them sick, or worse.