Troubled Teens Resources

There are more and more articles being written that cover the ongoing battle against the accelerating use of prescription drugs by troubled teenagers. Unfortunately, many of those articles center on the tragic instances of a teen’s death due to a prescription overdose. The article I excerpt below describes the campaign initiated by one set of bereaved parents.

“Cook of Denville spoke at an event designed to heighten awareness of the dangers of prescription drugs if taken improperly and to kick off a campaign to urge county residents to turn in to local authorities old or unused prescription drugs.”

One remark this bereaved fatheris worth noting.

“The father of a Morris Knolls High School student who died from an overdose of prescription drugs told a crowd outside the Morris County Courthouse on Wednesday that he and his wife felt they did all the right things to help their daughter.

The problem was, said Bob Cook, “we did them too late. We did all the right things, but after the fact.”

By the time they found drug counseling services, arranged for rehabilitation and paid full attention to their daughter’s drug problem, Cook said, Jessica Cook was already hooked.”

(Source)

“We did them too late.” This lesson so painfully learned by this father can serve as a warning to all parents. Educate yourself now about teen age substance abuse. Even if your teen does not appear to be at risk, start your research now so that you at least have a basic grasp of the available resources. Develop a list of troubled teen boarding schools and wilderness camps and teen behavioral programs. Acquaint yourself with available local resources and community drug abuse intervention efforts. Immunize your family against the scourge of addiction by being pro active, not reactive.

It is rather disconcerting to consider that a particular type of crime lends itself to a particular type of drug addict’s ability to execute it. In the continuing teen crisis intervention efforts by law enforcement officials to curb the raging appetite for meth,they are discovering a possible link between meth users and identity theft.

“Like crack cocaine in the 1980’s, officials say, the rise of methamphetamine has been accompanied by a specific set of crimes and skills that are shared among users and dealers.”

Meth users experience a type of high that allow them to commit identity thefts with much more ease than a junkie or crack head might experience.

“Crack users and heroin users are so disorganized and get in these frantic binges, they’re not going to sit still and do anything in an organized way for very long,” Dr. Rawson said. “Meth users, on the other hand, that’s all they have, is time. The drug stimulates the part of the brain that perseverates on things. So you get people perseverating on things, and if you sit down at a computer terminal you can go for hours and hours.”

Whereas crack and heroin are typically sold in densely populated urban areas, meth labs tend to be found in rural areas. Mail is easily stolen from unlocked mail boxes and fake IDs are routinely needed to rent apartments and studios and isolated houses to set up meth labs.

“In a survey of 500 county sheriffs, 27 percent said methamphetamine had contributed to a rise in identity theft in their areas. Even more — 62 percent and 68 percent, respectively — noted that it contributed to increases in domestic abuse or robberies and burglaries.”

(Source)

Unfortunately, the destruction that is so much a signature of drug abuse extends to the community at large.