Drugs.


Hearing that word most people think of weed or cocaine. But the drugs that are easier to get are pills. Some prescription, some not.
A fourteen year old girl. Sick of life. Sick of breathing. Sick of it all. Pills in her hand. Advil. She stares in the mirror, into her own eyes. The end. If less then a handful of Advil can do this, why is it found in everyones household unprotected?
Group of sixteen year olds taking pills. They don’t know what they are, they’re prescription. They stole them from their parents. They want something to happen, they want to lose their minds, not think, and have fun. They don’t know what really can happen.
A seventeen year old boy. He broke his ankle, took an advil. No harm in that, right? One Advil, two, four, ten. He started taking them for everything. Feeling sad? Advil. Fell down? Advil. Got a cut? Advil. He thought that it would fix his problems. Hoped.

Teenagers don’t know the real effect of pills, they think it’s cool, fun, makes them party. People need to protect their pills so other people don’t take them. People don’t think a lot about the real effects of pills and drugs, they don’t notice that Advil could kill you. Teenagers and adults need to think about the dangers of having pills.

50% of teen think that prescription pills they don’t need are safer then “Street Drugs”. 16% of parents think that prescription pills are safer. If parents are thinking this how do you know that they are encouraging prescription pills? In a poll at the RAUC 60% of students think that Prescription pills they don’t need are safer then street drugs.

24% of High School students abuse prescription pills. That number is going up, everyday 2,500 teens abuse prescription pills for the first time. In 2005 there were 22,400 drug overdoses. 38.2% of those deaths were caused by abusing painkillers. There is no age limit to buy Advil. What is stopping them?

Some people might think that this isn’t a big issue, you don’t know anyone who does it, you haven’t heard about it in your area, so obviously it’s not a problem. Why should you care? But that is where I disagree with those people. Just because you don’t hear about it, doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen.

People you know could have this problem, but you might not know. You don’t know everything about all the people you know. Your friends, who you thought you knew everything about, could be harming themselves with unnecessary pills. You might truly not know anyone who abuses prescription pills. But you don’t know all of the High School students. You can’t say it’s not a problem because you don’t know about it. Did you ever even think about this issue before now? Did you ever know the facts? Did you ever worry and ask your friends about it?

In an interview with the School Counselor at the RAUC, she talked about why teens would abuse prescriptions and what you can do to watch your prescriptions. A lot of teens may have a hard time talking to people. They are scared to because they don’t know if anyone would understand and they don’t know how to express themselves. This can cause then to feel alone, like no one understands, no one cares. This is one of the main reason teens abuse prescriptions.
The best way to keep your prescription safe? Lock it up. Most people may think that that may be over the top, but it is the safest way. It doesn’t take that much extra work. You just need a small safe. To know that no one else is taking your prescription, to know that you’re keeping teenagers safe, to know that you can help the percentage of teenagers that abuse prescriptions go down. Is it truly that much extra work?
“Without the knowledge I was addicted, I went ‘cold turkey.’ For four days and nights I was bedridden. I didn’t sleep or eat. I vomited. I had hallucinations. On about the third day without Xanax I started to become uncoordinated and unbalanced and bumped into things. On about the fourth day I became really worried when I started having twitching sensations.” When Patricia got addicted she didn’t know it. For the four days she didn’t take Xanax her body responded dramatically. Her body was use to her taking Xanax so when she just drastically stopped her body noticed. It should never get to this point. What if it was your friend or sibling, or child who got addicted? They couldn’t stop, they tried to, but went cold turkey. Help them stop. Never get to this point. Never start.