Teen Age Drug Abuse a Familiar Topic for EMS
Parents are already likely aware of the newest and startling report detailing the state of teen age drug abuse and the rampant amount of prescription drug abuse by teens at risk. The most startling aspect of the report, however, was not the alarming numbers of offending teens but that parents are either, for the most part, unaware or indifferent.
“Despite indications that most parents have their heads firmly planted in the sand (if not buried somewhere even less pleasant), 4 out of 5 high school students say they are regularly exposed to drugs in their schools.”
Those whose duty it is to collect the collapsed and comatose bodies of overdosed American teens are not very surprised and offer very basic counsel that parents need to start heeding.
Relevant Tags:american teens, drugs, EMS, high school students, prescription drug abuse, school outreach programs, teen age drug abuse, teens at risk“For those of us in the EMS fields, this may not come as much of a surprise. Even in my supposedly protected rural area, I am always taken aback by the number of overdose calls we get at local schools. The most important warning that comes from this report is that the parents seem to be completely unaware of the this increasing trend in their children’s schools. We can do two things:
1. Take care of our own first. Talk regularly and often with your own children about drugs in their schools. What drugs do they come in contact with?
2. Get involved in your community education projects. Talk to your local police agencies about what drugs they are seeing more commonly on the street this year. Arrange to provide assistance to their school outreach programs with a demonstration of the life-saving techniques we will have to use in the case of an overdose.”
