Teens and Synthetic Drug Use

I recently spent some time in a “tobacco” shop in one of our neighboring communities. I’m very close with someone that worked there at the time and wanted to see what took place there. I walked away incredibly heart broken and disturbed at the amount of people walking in and out with synthetic drugs. It opened my eyes to a horrifying trend in today’s youth culture.

I watched as a steady flow of people came in and bought “potpourri” in different “scents.” I saw men and women buying a white powder that claimed to be for massages. The store even had masking agents, synthetic urine, and cleansing solutions all designed to help a person pass drug tests.

What really angered me was the high school students I saw come in and legally buy a substance that could do some real damage. Not only were they purchasing a drug that caused serious side effects, just think what could happen if they had smoked that then drove off, but they did it legally! With no thought of repercussions, they walked in and out with what was essentially marijuana.

According to CNN Health, 1 in 9 high school seniors is or has used synthetic marijuana this last year. They also reported that synthetic pot was now the second most used drug for teenagers only to natural marijuana.

You may have seen the headlines of Spice or K2 as it was known. Since then the DEA stepped in and made the drugs used to make Spice or K2 illegal. And yet you can still walk into these “tobacco” stores and purchase a synthetic version of marijuana.

While the use of alcohol and smoking are at all-time lows, marijuana use is still at a level considered high. The article stated that this could be because many teens see the drug as harmless.

But what I saw in that store that day would not be considered harmless. Every time that door opened, there was another tragic story etched on the person’s face. You could see lives that had been lived way too hard and the effects that it took on them physically. I saw parents leaving their kids in the car to buy a quick and cheap high. There were teens acting like Beavis and Butthead when they should have been in class. What I saw was the exploitation of laws designed to protect people from themselves.

So knowing that there are legal ways for our teens to get high how are we to proceed? What do you and I do as parents to help our children understand that this is dangerous? Here are some things you might find helpful in your family’s conversation.

Be Honest

Your teens understand what drugs are. This is a generation raised on D.A.R.E. And they can smell fake a mile away.

So don’t come at them with, “Drugs will kill you” because your teen knows plenty of people that use something and haven’t died. And while there may be a real threat of this, most teen’s response to this will be, “That wouldn’t happen to me.”

If you’ve never dabbled or experimented with drugs then tell them that. Let them know the real reasons you chose a different path than many. Give them the benefits of having lived this way and how it’s helped you in life. If you have experimented, and you’re brave enough, tell them why. Don’t go into any details or stories that may glorify drug use, but let them see that you’ve made those mistakes.

We have to be honest. People wouldn’t use if it didn’t feel good or cause some short lived fun. The average teenager understands this and if they aren’t self-medicating, may be thinking about using because of the fact that it could be fun. But along with that short lived fun comes the very real long term consequences. Don’t use scare tactics here, but be very frank with what does happen on an everyday basis.

Your honesty will go a long way to building a bridge should they ever use or think about it.

Don’t be naïve

Your student may be a straight A teen that excels in everything they do. But don’t think for one second that they haven’t been exposed to some sort of drug while in school. It is easier for your teen to buy an illegal substance than it is to buy cigarettes.

Having worked with students and their families for over a decade I know first-hand how easy it is for students to get their hands on anything.

Make yourself aware of these very real dangers. It is in our schools, it is in our communities, and it may just be in your neighborhood.

This doesn’t mean that you have to run around like Chicken Little screaming “THE SKY IS FALLING!” But it does mean that you can’t just bury your head in the sand and hope your student isn’t exposed. You, as the parent, must be proactive in educating your child. It is your responsibility, not the schools or the D.A.R.E. officer, to make sure your teen is aware of the dangers of using.

Be there

If I have learned one thing in life, it’s that we all make mistakes. We all mess up.  We are all, at times, broken. It’s part of the human condition. We all share that. And so do your teens.

Your teen will mess up. And if it happens to be with a controlled substance, there are many facilities and programs in the area and across the country that can assist you if it has turned into an addiction. If that is the case, my advice to you is to act quickly. Your teen may be very resentful if you send them into treatment, but wouldn’t you rather have your child alive and mad at you than dead? 

Talk to a school counselor, doctor, minister, or someone you trust in these matters and get your teen the help they need now! Then get yourself into a local support group such as AL-ANON which helps the families of those addicted.

But if your child is like most and just begins to experiment with a controlled substance and you find out, or your teen comes home drunk or high, then my advice to you is to not lose control. A deep meaningful conversation will be lost on ears that are drunk or high. Wait until later the next day to have a serious talk. Make sure that your emotions are kept in check and that you know what you want to say.

My parents always told us that if we ever did something like this while at someone’s home to call them and they would come get us, no questions asked. We know that there would be discipline eventually but we also knew that our parents loved us enough to be there no matter how stupid a thing we did.

This is not a complete list by any means. But it is a start. Each child and family is unique, so are the circumstances that you will face. I am not an expert on your family but you are. Just begin by understanding the culture your child lives in and that it is far different from the one you did.

As I said goodbye to my good friend and left that “tobacco” store my heart was heavy. It was extremely challenging to walk away from that place and not just scream at these people that they were throwing their lives away. It ripped my soul in two seeing parents coming in and perpetuating this cycle of addiction. And it crushed me to see those teens walk away with a substance that could radically alter the course of their lives.

I felt helpless. I got in my car and said a prayer for my children. I promised myself that I would do whatever it takes to ingrain in my two children that they are worth more than this. I will spend every waking moment showing them that they are loved and valuable. And I will ingrain in them that they are better than some cheap, tawdry bag of “potpourri.”