Addictions

Explores the problem of Teenage over the counter drug abuse. Describes the popular drugs found in the home medicine cabinet. Urges parents to recognize the problem and work to solve it.

Most parents are worried about their children due to the availability of illegal drugs and alcohol. However, one consideration that they haven’t yet contemplated is the availability of Over-The-Counter (OTC) drugs. As ludicrous as people make this out to be, the fact is that teenage OTC abuse is becoming an extremely serious matter. The amount of abusers could be reduced if parents would wake up and pay a little more attention to their children’s whereabouts.
Now, as a parent, you’re probably thinking, “My teenage child would never be involved in such an issue.” Most teens entering high school are usually highly susceptible to experimentation, and to them, consuming OTC drugs is an alternative to doing riskier, illegal drugs. What these teens are unaware of is the fact that OTC drug over-dosage is equally as dangerous as marijuana or ecstasy. A resource officer, a high school senior, and a pharmacist all agree that the new popular drugs are found in the home medicine cabinet (Clark, Shasta. 31 January, 2005). High school sophomore, Dustin Smith, agrees that some of his friends sniff inhalants because they know it is not addictive, and it doesn’t require a fake ID (Medical News. 1 July, 2004).

Parents find it hard to believe that all of this is occurring right under their very own noses. However, the time it takes for you to grab a soda out of the refrigerator is enough time for your son or daughter to sneak into the medicine cabinet, grab 10 or 11 pills, and run back upstairs. The easy access that teens seem to have is one of the key problems to drug misuse. Basically, anything can intoxicate your child with an “artificial high.” From Sharpies, to cough syrups, to bleach, it seems that home isn’t as safe as you thought it was. It seems nearly impossible to keep OTC drugs away from children, but locking up your medicine cabinet seems like a healthy start.

The most commonly used drug, Dextromethorphan (DXM), is accessible in cough syrup (DXM makes up 80% of most cough medicines), is available in a powder form over the Internet, and is found in more than 125 OTC products. Some might argue that because DXM is a key provider of cold symptom relief, it can hardly be considered harmful. Over usage of a DXM product can cause hallucinations, impaired judgment, loss of coordination, nausea, hot flashes, and dissociation. An even scarier thought is that the amount of student abusers in local middle schools and high schools is 6-9% of these student populations (Palo Alto Weekly. 28 April, 2004).

A child using OTC drugs doesn’t necessarily reflect a bad image of the parent, but not staying involved in his or her life does. Problems such as these cannot be directly blamed on parents or guardians because, after all, it is up to the child to take the medicines. Even though their children are ultimately responsible for their own actions, parents should be doing absolutely everything in their power to keep them clear of OTC drug abuse. According to researchers, “parents are the anti-drugs” (The National Institute on Drug Abuse). This means that parents can make a difference in their child’s decisions, such as: talking to your child, keeping a safe home (and medicine cabinet), and monitoring pill amounts and Internet use for any unsupervised purchases.