Is My Child Experimenting with Drugs?

Perhaps one of the greatest fears of raising teenagers is protecting your children from the temptations of drugs and alcohol. The following data, provided by Interquest Group, Inc. who train contraband detection canines in schools, may help you determine if your teenager is experimenting with certain drugs and what dangers those specific drugs generate.

Alcohol symptoms include slurred speech, unsteady walk, relaxation, relaxed inhibitions, impaired coordination, and slowed reflexes. Parents should look for the smell of alcohol on clothing or breath, intoxicated behavior, glazed eyes, or a hangover the next morning. Addiction, accidents as a result of impaired ability and judgment, overdose when mixed, and heart or liver damage are dangers caused by alcohol.

Marijuana nicknames include pot, dope, grass, weed, herb, hash, and joint, just to name a few. Symptoms include altered perceptions, red eyes, dry mouth, reduced concentration and coordination, euphoria, laughing, and hunger. If you think your child may be smoking marijuana, you should look for rolling papers, pipes, dried plant material, odor of burnt hemp rose, and roach clips. Dangers of this drug include panic reaction, impaired short term memory, and addiction.

Hallucinogens include acid, LSD, MDMA, Ecstasy (X), psilocybin, mushrooms, and peyote. The physical symptoms include altered mood and perceptions, focus on detail, anxiety, panic, nausea, and synaesthesia (seeing sounds or smelling colors). Because these drugs can be consumed in a variety of ways, parents should look for capsules, tablets, "microdots," and blotter squares. If you find any unlabeled pill, you may want to let your doctor inspect it because Ecstasy, which is growing in popularity, is made into numerous shapes and colors of pills and capsules. Dangerous behavior includes unpredictable behavior, emotional instability, and violent behavior.

Cocaine is sometimes called coke, crack, base, or rock. Physical symptoms include brief intense euphoria, elevated blood pressure and heart rate, restlessness, excitement, feeling of well-being followed by depression. If you find glass vials, a glass pipe, white crystalline powder, razor blades, syringes, and/or needle marks, you should suspect cocaine use. Dangers include addiction, heart attack, seizures, lung damage, severe depression, and paranoia.

While many parents are aware of street drugs, many times we forget about the products we keep around our house that can also be used as a drug. Inhalants, such as gas, aerosols, glue, nitrites, Rush, and White Out are popular among junior high school students because of their easy accessibility. They cause nausea, dizziness, headaches, and a lack of coordination and control. Look for the odor of such substances on your child's clothing and breath, intoxication, drowsiness, and poor muscle control if you feel your child may be inhaling such products. Dangers include unconsciousness, suffocation, nausea and vomiting, damage to the brain and central nervous system, and sudden death.