Parlor Spider...Step In, Little Fly

Insightful thoughts and/or rants from atop the soapbox from one who wishes to share the "right" opinion with everyone.

Thursday, September 19, 2013

Putting the High in High School

In a naively shocking way, I was more than surprised last week to find that two young people from the high school where I taught recently had been arrested by the FBI on charges of buying and selling ecstasy. One of them lived across the street from us when he was growing up. Buying "molly" from a supplier in Germany and having it sent labelled as trading cards just didn't seem to work out, and now prison is a decided factor for their future though it is only now playing out through the court system. Thus, that begs the question of how rampant IS drug use among high school students?
According to a survey done by CNN of 15,000 high school seniors in 129 schools across the country, drug use is frighteningly widespread.
Of the seniors surveyed, 40% admitted to getting high in the last year, and 25% admitted to getting high in the previous month. That seems like a high number to me. So, what are they getting high ON?
Mostly marijuana (since it's seen as harmless now), cough syrup and narcotics (mostly in the form of prescription drugs used for ADHD as well as anxiety and depression-lessening.
I was surprised (but probably should not have been) that DXM is an ingredient found in 120 cough-suppressant medicines. It's easy to get, easy to "need" and parents may not always be as aware of it for the high it can produce.
With doctors prescribing drugs for almost any ailment these days, a teen can simply reach into a medicine cabinet at home and have more than a plentiful supply.
Marijuana still seems to be the drug of choice, though, and relaxed laws concerning purchase in some states contribute to this, no doubt, as well as the number of parents who don't feel that they were harmed by using it "back in the day."
Potentially scary since we will someday hand our country over to this generation.
But then, can it do much worse than those who are "guiding" us now?

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