Parents, Guard Thy Tylenol

According to DrugFree.org, a national study found that millions of teens (grades 7-12) think that using precription or over-the-counter medicine (including cough syrup) to get high is less dangerous than using illegal drugs. From the website:

• Two in five teens (40 percent or 9.4 million) agree that Rx medicines, even if they are not prescribed by a doctor, are "much safer" to use than illegal drugs.
  
  
• Nearly one in five (19 percent or 4.5 million) teens has tried prescription medication (pain relievers such as Vicodin and OxyContin; stimulants like Ritalin and Adderall) to get high.
  
  
• Nearly one-third of teens (31 percent or 7.3 million) believe there’s "nothing wrong" with using Rx medicines without a prescription "once in a while."
  

A few thoughts spring to mind on this subject, but my first reaction was surprise. Did you know that Lays Potato Chips makes a Chile Limon flavor? Me neither! I found them at 7-Eleven this morning on the way to work. My second reaction was one of disappointment. The chips aren't as exciting as I'd hoped they'd be and teens, apparently, aren't as smart as I'd been giving them credit for all these years. It's not entirely their fault, since I imagine that when their parents talk to them about drugs (incidentally, kids who are educated about the risks of drug abuse at home are 50 percent less likely to use drugs), the focus tends to cleave pretty determindely to alcohol, nicotine, and other "hardcore" drugs out in the world. Maybe parents don't think that addressing the subject is necessary, for a number of reasons. They may not think that "medicine" will hold the same fascination for their teens, banking on the memory of their childhood reactions to cough syrup and pill swallowing. Or they, like their teens, are simply ignorant of the dangers that abusing prescription and OTC medications pose.

So, parents. Teens will find ways to abuse drugs if they want to, even going so far as to take them from your medicine cabinet. But you can do your part to prevent this by talking to your children about drugs and drug abuse, early and often, including the threat posed by readily available medications, which can be harmful and, yes, ultimately addictive. Unlike these stupid chips.