Drugs: The Enemy Within
I ses the role of the parents to be much like an early warning system, our radars ceaselessly sweeping the horizon for incoming ballistic missiles that might knock our children off their feet. One such potent missile is that of drugs.
We attended a seminar today at church on drug trends in Arizona and got a lot of new information. I've included some of the old-school information that we have inculcated into our children from an early age. I was watching an 2001 video recently when our boys were five and three about whether they would take something "if it made them feel kooky" if there friends wanted to take it. No, they both said, but the youngest volunteered that he "liked salad."
Here are some of my notes from this seminar.
1. Heroin is interchangeable with over-the-counter drugs in effect and danger. Dextromethorphan (DXM) is a substance found in cough and cold medications. Slang: DXM, Robo-flipping, Skittles, Tussin, Dex, Red Devils. Side effects include brain damage or death.
2. Be a parent, not a best friend. Fight curiosity, peer pressure, and boredom with facts, understanding,observation, conversation, monitoring, fun, and a vision for their future.
3. Highs in the home include medicine cabinets, office supplies such as whiteout, markers, and Dust Off, the kitchen (air freshners, clearners, aerosols), and the garage (paints, cleaners.)
4. The three most prevalent drugs of abuse are alcohol, cigarettes, and marijuana. 47 percent of 12th graders have reported drinking in the last 30 days. 47% of Arizona adults think it's OK for youth to drink without parent supervision.
5. Alcohol companies are manufacturing their products to confuse their cans with energy drinks, i.e. Rock Star and Sparks versus Amp and Monster. They are also creating bottles the size of a bottle of nail polish, such as Spykes. Also: Pocket Shots-- plastic bags containing rum, whisky, vodka, tequila, or gin. They are all bad and sometimes deadly for your children.
6. Alcopops-- sweet, sugary alternatives to beer, i.e. Mike's Hard Lemonade and Smirnoff Ice.
7. Tobacco is the number one killer of all drugs out there. It kills more people than AIDs, alcohool, murders, car crashes, fires, suicides, and all drugs combined. A new danger: Third hand smoke-- the residue of smoke in a room where someone once smoked.
8. Salvia-- a Mexican herb-- creates delusions and paranoia. ($10-$100/ounce.)
9. Inhalents are not drugs, but poisons. They kill more first time users than any other substance used as a drug.
10. Purple Drank-- recreational drug popular with the hip-hop culture.
11. Pharm Parties-- go to party and take various pills, usually with alcohol. Skittle parties. Club kids.
12. Morphone Suckers-- Fentanyl.
13. Diversions include hollowed out magic markets, reef flip flops, flasks, water drinks, Hershey mint packs, and magnets.
14. Sudafed is a Pseudoephedrine found in methamphetamine. "Strawberry Quick" and "Yaba"-- flavored meth.
15. PCP - Phenyclidine-- horse or elephant tranquilizer. "Sherms", "Wet".
16. Special K- Ketamine-- cat tranquilizer-- less potyent version of PCP.
17. Ecstasty (MDMA) - Methylenedioxymethamphetamine-- chemical cousin to meth.
18. Marijuana -- most commonly abused illegal drug by teens. More carcinogens than tobacco. "420"
19. Chemical depndency is primary, pervasive, progressive, 100% treatable, 100% fatal, 100% preventable.
20. A great website www.jointogeether.org.
Here are some excerpts from my e-book An Evening With Your Dad, where I discuss this and many other topics that may someday interest my chidlren.
Smoking
Since middle school, I’ve had a strong aversion to tobacco—a well-earned reaction to traveling eight miles each day to Council Rock in a smoke-filled bus. Zach in Mrs. Fleming’s Third Grade class did a science project that asked “Is Smoking Good For You?” He found his answer when Zach determined that two packs of Marlboros each day over twenty years would cost him almost $60,000, excluding interest and health and insurance costs. Zach also found out that the chemicals in tobacco are the same as in rat poison (arsenic) and toilet cleaner (ammonia). Cigarettes, he concluded, is bad for your health and your wealth. When I started work in the early 1980s, co-workers would smoke in their cubicles. Today, your will see them outside the office building in the rain, cold, or the snow—huddled masses yearning to breath free.
Drugs
Some conservative have made arguments why certain illegal drugs such as heroin and ecstasy should be made legal—to raise tax money, to reduce prison overcrowding, and to reduce the demand for drugs. On the other hand, countries such as Malaysia and Singapore have no qualms in hanging Americans or Australians who try to smuggle drugs into their country. But the legal aspect is beside the point. The real question is why do some people use drugs and booze to numb themselves? Why seek a false reality that can become your only reality? I don’t want to minimize the pressure of peers, but I know you will have the courage to rebuff them. You will see that friends who make you weaker and dumber are your enemies. College and career is hard enough, and a clear and healthy mind is the edge you need to compete and to excel.
Alcohol
Alcohol, like tobacco, is a legal drug, and it’s a drug that can kill. When Zachary was a year old, three teenagers Christina Valzano, 15, Scott Gerfen, 18, and Kevin Eineke, 21, rammed a tree in a Pontiac Trans Am close to where we lived in Lake in the Hills. All were killed bringing tremendous grief to the community. Eineke, who was driving the car 70 miles per hour on a road with a 25 mile per hour limit, had a blood alcohol level at .188, almost double the legal limit.
I’ve never liked alcohol of any kind. During my twenties, alcohol lubricated social life, and people thought you were a blue nose if you didn’t drink. In more recent years, however, there has been a sea change in perception, largely due to the carnage on the roads. I no longer feel embarrassed when I decline a margarita and ask for lemonade. But is there any need to dwell on the toxic power of alcohol? In moderate doses, it disturbs appetite and murders sleep. It makes me think I’m charming when I’m an ass—thereby slandering the name of a perfectly fine animal. It excess, it makes me vomit and extinguishes that dim flicker of reason in my poor mind. Alcohol soon overcomes the strongest man and turns him into a bellowing beast that flails against imaginary enemies. It shipwrecks families and careers, and besots the brain and destroys the liver. I don’t drink for the same reason I don’t use cocaine. All that I have between me and abject failure is a basically average mind and body. And if abstaining from alcohol is one more thing that will keep me from failure, then abstain I will. I don’t view my rejection of alcohol as a moral choice, but as a matter of personal taste and, more importantly, a pragmatic decision that will give me that tiny edge over those with whom I compete.
We attended a seminar today at church on drug trends in Arizona and got a lot of new information. I've included some of the old-school information that we have inculcated into our children from an early age. I was watching an 2001 video recently when our boys were five and three about whether they would take something "if it made them feel kooky" if there friends wanted to take it. No, they both said, but the youngest volunteered that he "liked salad."
Here are some of my notes from this seminar.
1. Heroin is interchangeable with over-the-counter drugs in effect and danger. Dextromethorphan (DXM) is a substance found in cough and cold medications. Slang: DXM, Robo-flipping, Skittles, Tussin, Dex, Red Devils. Side effects include brain damage or death.
2. Be a parent, not a best friend. Fight curiosity, peer pressure, and boredom with facts, understanding,observation, conversation, monitoring, fun, and a vision for their future.
3. Highs in the home include medicine cabinets, office supplies such as whiteout, markers, and Dust Off, the kitchen (air freshners, clearners, aerosols), and the garage (paints, cleaners.)
4. The three most prevalent drugs of abuse are alcohol, cigarettes, and marijuana. 47 percent of 12th graders have reported drinking in the last 30 days. 47% of Arizona adults think it's OK for youth to drink without parent supervision.
5. Alcohol companies are manufacturing their products to confuse their cans with energy drinks, i.e. Rock Star and Sparks versus Amp and Monster. They are also creating bottles the size of a bottle of nail polish, such as Spykes. Also: Pocket Shots-- plastic bags containing rum, whisky, vodka, tequila, or gin. They are all bad and sometimes deadly for your children.
6. Alcopops-- sweet, sugary alternatives to beer, i.e. Mike's Hard Lemonade and Smirnoff Ice.
7. Tobacco is the number one killer of all drugs out there. It kills more people than AIDs, alcohool, murders, car crashes, fires, suicides, and all drugs combined. A new danger: Third hand smoke-- the residue of smoke in a room where someone once smoked.
8. Salvia-- a Mexican herb-- creates delusions and paranoia. ($10-$100/ounce.)
9. Inhalents are not drugs, but poisons. They kill more first time users than any other substance used as a drug.
10. Purple Drank-- recreational drug popular with the hip-hop culture.
11. Pharm Parties-- go to party and take various pills, usually with alcohol. Skittle parties. Club kids.
12. Morphone Suckers-- Fentanyl.
13. Diversions include hollowed out magic markets, reef flip flops, flasks, water drinks, Hershey mint packs, and magnets.
14. Sudafed is a Pseudoephedrine found in methamphetamine. "Strawberry Quick" and "Yaba"-- flavored meth.
15. PCP - Phenyclidine-- horse or elephant tranquilizer. "Sherms", "Wet".
16. Special K- Ketamine-- cat tranquilizer-- less potyent version of PCP.
17. Ecstasty (MDMA) - Methylenedioxymethamphetamine-- chemical cousin to meth.
18. Marijuana -- most commonly abused illegal drug by teens. More carcinogens than tobacco. "420"
19. Chemical depndency is primary, pervasive, progressive, 100% treatable, 100% fatal, 100% preventable.
20. A great website www.jointogeether.org.
Here are some excerpts from my e-book An Evening With Your Dad, where I discuss this and many other topics that may someday interest my chidlren.
Smoking
Since middle school, I’ve had a strong aversion to tobacco—a well-earned reaction to traveling eight miles each day to Council Rock in a smoke-filled bus. Zach in Mrs. Fleming’s Third Grade class did a science project that asked “Is Smoking Good For You?” He found his answer when Zach determined that two packs of Marlboros each day over twenty years would cost him almost $60,000, excluding interest and health and insurance costs. Zach also found out that the chemicals in tobacco are the same as in rat poison (arsenic) and toilet cleaner (ammonia). Cigarettes, he concluded, is bad for your health and your wealth. When I started work in the early 1980s, co-workers would smoke in their cubicles. Today, your will see them outside the office building in the rain, cold, or the snow—huddled masses yearning to breath free.
Drugs
Some conservative have made arguments why certain illegal drugs such as heroin and ecstasy should be made legal—to raise tax money, to reduce prison overcrowding, and to reduce the demand for drugs. On the other hand, countries such as Malaysia and Singapore have no qualms in hanging Americans or Australians who try to smuggle drugs into their country. But the legal aspect is beside the point. The real question is why do some people use drugs and booze to numb themselves? Why seek a false reality that can become your only reality? I don’t want to minimize the pressure of peers, but I know you will have the courage to rebuff them. You will see that friends who make you weaker and dumber are your enemies. College and career is hard enough, and a clear and healthy mind is the edge you need to compete and to excel.
Alcohol
Alcohol, like tobacco, is a legal drug, and it’s a drug that can kill. When Zachary was a year old, three teenagers Christina Valzano, 15, Scott Gerfen, 18, and Kevin Eineke, 21, rammed a tree in a Pontiac Trans Am close to where we lived in Lake in the Hills. All were killed bringing tremendous grief to the community. Eineke, who was driving the car 70 miles per hour on a road with a 25 mile per hour limit, had a blood alcohol level at .188, almost double the legal limit.
I’ve never liked alcohol of any kind. During my twenties, alcohol lubricated social life, and people thought you were a blue nose if you didn’t drink. In more recent years, however, there has been a sea change in perception, largely due to the carnage on the roads. I no longer feel embarrassed when I decline a margarita and ask for lemonade. But is there any need to dwell on the toxic power of alcohol? In moderate doses, it disturbs appetite and murders sleep. It makes me think I’m charming when I’m an ass—thereby slandering the name of a perfectly fine animal. It excess, it makes me vomit and extinguishes that dim flicker of reason in my poor mind. Alcohol soon overcomes the strongest man and turns him into a bellowing beast that flails against imaginary enemies. It shipwrecks families and careers, and besots the brain and destroys the liver. I don’t drink for the same reason I don’t use cocaine. All that I have between me and abject failure is a basically average mind and body. And if abstaining from alcohol is one more thing that will keep me from failure, then abstain I will. I don’t view my rejection of alcohol as a moral choice, but as a matter of personal taste and, more importantly, a pragmatic decision that will give me that tiny edge over those with whom I compete.
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