Teen Drug Use Prevention: From Home to Homeroom

Parenting teens is a challenge today.


Schools and parents today need to work together to help prevent teen drug use.

Fast Facts: Preventing Teen OTC Cough Medicine Abuse - From Home to Homeroom

A Wake Up Call for Parents
  • Thirty-three percent of American high school teens know someone who has abused cough medicine, a wake up call for those parents who think that their teen is not affected or being exposed to the issue.
  • Six percent of high school teens admit to abusing cough medicine containing dextromethorphan, or DXM, to get high in the past year.
Cough Medicine Abuse Does Not Happen By Accident
  • While safe and effective when taken as directed, teens looking to get high from cough medicine take excessive amounts, sometimes 25 to 50 times the recommended dosage. This translates to multiple bottles or packages of medicine at one time.
  • Teens often abuse cough medicines with other prescription drugs, illicit drugs, or alcohol.
  • Even the best kid in the world doesn't have the same ability as adults to assess risk because the part of their brain that processes risk, the frontal cortex, doesn't finish developing until their mid 20s.
Parents Have the Power to Keep Teens Drug-free
  • Research shows that kids who learn a lot from their parents about the risk of drug abuse are up to half as likely to use.
  • Parents are not alone in their fight to prevent medicine abuse; reaching out to the school nurse can help parents learn more about the issue and access local resources.
  • Parents can learn more about the Home to Homeroom campaign by logging onto www.StopMedicineAbuse.org
Parents can interact and help raise awareness by joining online communities including:

Join me on Facebook  and follow me on Twitter for more information and educational articles on parenting today's teenagers.

Popular posts from this blog

Teens Starting College: Transition Blues

Image
Mental illness continues to mystify the mainstream, and students already stressed and anxious about classes, relationships, jobs and activities end up suffering from the stigmas just as much as the conditions themselves. But they don’t have to nurture their pain in quiet. More and more individuals (students or not), their loved ones and organizations are speaking up in favor of psychological help in all its forms. The following list represents some of the most common conditions occurring on campuses globally, though by no means should it be considered a comprehensive glimpse at an issue far more broad and complex. Clinical Depression : At least 44% of college students have reported suffering from some degree of clinical depression — and the number only escalates from there as years tick past. Thanks to prevailing social stigmas regarding psychiatric help, only 23% of victims reported that they’d be comfortable discussing their treatment. Considering the amount of s...
Read more

How to Find NATSAP Schools for My Troubled Teen

Image
  Searching for  schools for troubled teens online  can be tedious and confusing. If this is your first time searching for therapeutic boarding schools for your troubled teenager, learning the terminology will be one of your first lessons. 5 Tips to Untangle the Troubled Teen Industry Terminology “ My teen needs a Military school to teach them a lesson!”  WRONG. Military schools  are a privilege and honor to attend, they are not for defiant, drug-using, depressed, or other behavioral issues students. They do   not   provide mental health services – and if your teen is using drugs, drinking, or vaping now – by attending an open campus, it is likely s/he will consider the use again. However, this time when he is caught (typically three strike you are out) and the parents will forfeit their tuition. This is the same for any of the behavioral issues they are asked to leave or expelled for – you will be risking your tuition as well as  setting your ch...
Read more

Wood Creek Academy Updated

Image
  UPDATE - February 21, 2021 Wood Creek Academy Wood Creek Academy  sent me a Cease and Desist letter to remove this blog.... so I will edit it - since they believe it was defamatory. The letter is below. I can't believe it's been over  17 years since my nightmare  with WWASPS.  WWWASP as officially disbanded now. Sadly I still receive emails (in 2021) from students struggling to overcome the emotional trauma they endured during their time at a WWASPS facility, as well as many simply looking for help in seeking academic credits. Neither which I can help them with, however it never ceases to amaze me that there are so many victims that have been effected by these people. The blessing is that many parents are doing their due diligence and learning how to educate themselves before placing their child into a residential therapy school or program.   They are asking the right questions, and digging deeper into the past of the program.  If your gut is tw...
Read more