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drdĒv€
07-31-2005, 04:16 PM
Below-the-radar drugs
Parents need to be vigilant as more teens turn to over-the-counter medication and household items for inexpensive highs
Tuesday, July 26, 2005
CLAIRE JIMENEZ
STATEN ISLAND ADVANCE
Cough medicine and household products seem harmless enough on your grocery list, but for some teens they register as easy and inexpensive highs.

From swallowing excessive amounts of Coricidin HBP (High Blood Pressure) Cough & Cold, nicknamed Triple C, to sniffing model-airplane glue, some of Staten Island's youngest teens are discovering new types of drug use.

Luke Nasta, executive director of Camelot Counseling Centers, explains that parents must take the initiative to understand and research the newest trends of drug use amongst teens so that they can be able to identify the different symptoms. He says that all too often when parents discover teens are abusing drugs they respond by saying, they had no idea. "But parents notice gradual changes in behavior of the teenagers -- their friends, attire, music and the hours that they keep. They notice these things. They're not clueless," Nasta explains.
"And they're afraid of what it means and that fear stops them from attacking the source of the problem. They deny the extent of the problem as it's developing because it's painful to cope with, until an event happens, and they can't deny it," says Nasta.

OVER-THE-COUNTER

Irritated with teachers and school, 15-year-old Amanda would begin her mornings sometimes swallowing up to six pills of Sudafed Maximum Strength Sinus and Allergy medication to push her further from the experience of being inside the classroom.

She says she got annoyed "listening to teachers talk about nothing" in the all-girls Catholic high school she attends in Staten Island. She first discovered the effects of Sudafed when she mistakenly swallowed too much one day.

"Your sight gets blurry; you can't react as fast. You're heart beats really hard. Your hands get swollen and you can't see the veins," Amanda said. "Liking the way it felt," the petite adolescent experimented by upping the dosage. "I only take the green box for sinus and allergies, because the other ones don't work."

Usually Amanda would overuse the over-the-counter medication when she was feeling upset or depressed, but she said she stopped after one bad experience with its adverse effects.

" I did too much one night and I felt really sick. My chest hurt and my heart was beating fast. I was at the movies and it was really loud and I felt like my head was going to explode. I will never do that again," she says.

For Amanda, stopping the drug use was easy, but most teens need adult help.

Amanda is 15, but Nasta says he is encountering even younger teens -- just 13 year olds and junior-high-school-aged kids -- who are experimenting with below-the-radar over-the-counter drugs.

"They're figuring out that this a way that they can get high and not have to buy drugs illegally. Young people are experimenters -- experimenters in life," Nasta says.

Triple C, one of the most popular over-the-counter cold medicines that teens are overusing, is priced at approximately $7 -- pretty cheap for the 13-year-old without much money. When taken over the recommended dosage, the drug produces a numbing effect. It also increases the user's heart rate and blurs his or her vision.

Leonora Ramirez, the assistant director of the North Shore Teen Center, says kids report friends who swallow the cold medicine before going to the Mall.

"But I don't know how long-lived that's going to be," Ramirez says, "because I don't hear anybody saying that they love it. It's probably going to be popular with kids who are depressed to begin with, because it tends to create a feeling of detachment."


HOUSEHOLD PRODUCTS


James is a 20-year-old college student. He remembers his friends from high school bragging about the red and green residue of paint they'd cough up from "huffing." His friends would intentionally inhale chemical vapors to produce a drunk-like high.

"You can use paint, paint thinner, gasoline, kerosene. Things you found from the garage. They'd get a rag, douse the rag, breathe in deeply and basically they're denying oxygen to their brains -- though I'm not sure if they knew the science behind it back then," said James.

The effects of huffing range from dizziness to hallucination. Household products like model-airplane glue, nail-polish remover and paint thinner are all popular inhalants. Users also suck the aerosol content out of whipped-cream cans.

Michael Zampella, director of the South Shore Teen Center, notes that huffing damages your brain, lungs, heart and kidneys. Teens can die from huffing, even if it is only their first time.


PRESCRIPTION DRUGS


Nasta notes a rising trend of Island teens using prescription drugs like Xanax and Oxy-Contin.

"We're seeing more prescription drug use as compared to cocaine or heroin or ecstasy. They find them in their parent's medicine cabinets," Nasta explains, "or they figure out what to tell doctors to get the drugs prescribed to them." Teens learn to complain about "anxiety, inability to sleep or pain."

It is also becoming popular for teens to combine prescription drugs with drinking.

"Xanax amplifies the effect of alcohol very significantly," says James. "It's becoming an epidemic. Kids mix Xanax and painkillers with drinking at almost every party you go to. The kids can be anywhere from 14 and up."

Because Xanax is habit-forming, teens become dependent on it and learn to look out for and buy the prescription medication from friends.

"Parents leave the medication out and then kids are stealing from Mom and Dad. They make a huge profit by selling $5 a pill," says James.

The combination of Xanax and alcohol yields both ugly and pleasant effects for the user. It loosens teens inhibitions, but it also causes them to "black out" or become unaware of what they are doing or saying, even when they seem lucid. The user can wake up in the morning with out being able to remember whole portions of their night.

James explained, however, that the reality is that by misusing the medication, teens put themselves at a greater risk of having unprotected sex or if the user is a girl, of getting raped.

Xanax looks harmless, because the pills resemble candy, James says. "They're small and you look at them and you think this isn't going to hurt me."

That is far from the truth.

WHY STATEN ISLAND


Staten Island already has gained a bad reputation for having the highest amount of teen drinking in New York City. Ms. Ramirez argues the Island teens are more prone to use drugs because Staten Island resembles a suburb more than the other boroughs where teens get bored more easily.

Teens lack the same amount of "positive activities" available to the rest of the city, she says.

James echoes Ramirez's sentiments.

" In Brooklyn or Queens, you can take a subway to do something on the weekends. But here it's like you have to get (messed) up.

"When I hear younger kids say they're going to hang out, automatically I think they're going to try to get beer from their dad or they're going to try to smoke some weed -- that's what hanging out is," James continued.

Nasta also warns parents, "In the summertime, when there isn't school, there's a danger (of teens using drugs) more frequently -- on a daily or nightly basis ... One summer can begin a self-destructive pattern with drugs and alcohol for a 13-, 14- or 15-year-old, because when September comes around, that pattern will already be established

TALK TO YOUR TEEN
How should parents enter into a conversation with their teenage children about drugs?

Nasta advises parents to "use a newspaper or magazine article to initiate conversation." He continues, "It should be part of the family's conversation, but parents (should not address teens) in a confrontational or accusatory type of manner."

He also encourages parents to use a limited amount of self-disclosure about their experience with drugs and alcohol, because it both bridges the generation gap and "establishes the parent as being life-experienced and an authority."

http://www.silive.com/living/advance/index...00.xml#continue (http://www.silive.com/living/advance/index.ssf?/base/living/1122384709214000.xml#continue)

GangGreen
08-01-2005, 12:42 AM
Irritated with teachers and school, 15-year-old Amanda would begin her mornings sometimes swallowing up to six pills of Sudafed Maximum Strength Sinus and Allergy medication to push her further from the experience of being inside the classroom.


tsk tsk tsk.and i thought people taking triple C's was bad.sudafed?wtf?!?!

Arm
08-01-2005, 07:10 AM
Originally posted by GangGreen@Jul 31 2005, 10:42 PM
Irritated with teachers and school, 15-year-old Amanda would begin her mornings sometimes swallowing up to six pills of Sudafed Maximum Strength Sinus and Allergy medication to push her further from the experience of being inside the classroom.

tsk tsk tsk.and i thought people taking triple C's was bad.sudafed?wtf?!?!
Sudafed Maximum Strength Sinus and Allergy contains chlorphenirame and pseudoephedrine. Not exactly a legal high. :shake:

And while high as a motherfucker on Sudafed( :shake: ), I can think of better places to go than the mall.

Christopher
08-01-2005, 11:22 AM
He also encourages parents to use a limited amount of self-disclosure about their experience with drugs and alcohol, because it both bridges the generation gap and "establishes the parent as being life-experienced and an authority."


What kind of bullshit is this?

Unnamed
08-01-2005, 01:57 PM
Jeeze i knew my city was stupid but... wow... I can now imagine my stores being out of sudafed every time i go for robitussin because of this.

neko
08-08-2005, 04:07 PM
omg 15 year old catholic school girl amanda is dexing oh noes!! :cry: :cry: :cry:

i am the najavo
08-08-2005, 05:09 PM
Somebody eat this Claire reporter out, STAT! She is not getting laid and it is taking a toll on her!

DXM User
08-08-2005, 11:49 PM
-----James explained, however, that the reality is that by misusing the medication, teens put themselves at a greater risk of having unprotected sex or if the user is a girl, of getting raped.-----


That's the part that really got to me.

Hamletthunktoomuch
08-15-2005, 05:49 PM
Oh great. Another article comparing dxm to sniffing glue.

smokey
02-20-2006, 02:00 AM
Originally posted by drdĒv€@Jul 31 2005, 03:16 PM
Triple C, one of the most popular over-the-counter cold medicines that teens are overusing, is priced at approximately $7 -- pretty cheap for the 13-year-old without much money. When taken over the recommended dosage, the drug produces a numbing effect.
1. i have never seem any store sell triple c to a 13 year old kid
2.a numbing effect? i do agree triple c does causes a numbing effect but it is so much more, chlorinated maleate o not.
3.i am sick of everyone putting dxm and triple c in the same boat. triple c is not same thing as dxm, diffrent drugs altoghether in my opinion

zerobass
02-20-2006, 04:08 AM
These articles are so depressing. It's like the media never does any research, they continually make shit up to fill news space, and use scare tactics that freak parents out, and cause even more false information to spead.

"OMG I'm 14 letz take some ceez and get fuxx0rd"
"ONO d00d my parents totalyl busted me and told the reporter that dee ex m made me worship satan"

brollie
02-20-2006, 05:29 PM
Getting nitrous out of whipped cream cans is not equivalent to starving your brain of oxygen by huffing paint thinner. :shake:

I HATE HATE HATE misinformed scare articles. :flame: