You may now be well-versed in the dangers of abusing prescription pain medicine, but are your children? Of course, the best way to find out is to talk with them often. But first, be aware of what may be some of your children’s misconceptions about this issue and where they may be getting some of their information.
the.Medic videos discuss the truths and myths about the abuse of prescription pain medicine. The most important myth is that prescription drugs are less dangerous than illicit drugs, like heroin and cocaine, because they are legal. Not true! Prescription pain medicines, used without a doctor’s supervision, are every bit as dangerous as illegal drugs. Another prevalent myth is that prescription pain relievers cannot be addictive. Again, this is wrong and dangerous to believe. If used incorrectly, the way certain prescription pain medications, called opioids, affect the brain, can make them highly addictive. A third common myth is that using prescription drugs only once in a while is okay. Wrong! Even one misuse can be deadly. Everybody is different, and it is dangerous to assume that occasional, non-prescribed use is safe.
Where do our kids get their information? Primarily what they learn is from their “friends.” But now their friends are not just in the neighborhood and at school; they are all over the country, and possibly much older than your child. If your children have MySpace or Facebook pages, then they can communicate with people of all ages across the country and the world. And of course, they also have access to all that Internet information that you have the ability to carefully verify while learning about prescription drugs. However, your children are not likely to be as discriminating as you when it comes to verifying information. This is why it is vital that you communicate with your children.
“Close to 10% of high school seniors have used an addictive, dangerous prescription narcotic within the past year. This is more than 10 times the rate of heroin use. Only tobacco, alcohol and marijuana are abused more frequently,” according to Marthea Falco, president of Drug Strategies and Philip Heymann, professor at Harvard Law School, in their March 15, 2008 editorial in the Washington Post. Their concern is that “the vast reach of the Internet makes it as easy for American adolescents to buy drugs as it is for them to buy books or music.” Like other dangerous hazards to their well-being that can reach children through the Internet, Falco and Heymann believe that “if the Internet is not already the primary enabler of this epidemic, it soon will be.”
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Reprinted with the permission of PBS. © Copyright MacNeil / Lehrer Productions
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