Adults struggling with drug addiction today grew up in a markedly different landscape of drug and alcohol products. Today, we have a multilayered selection of many varying drug products to choose from—and it seems there’s a new drug to choose from every week. Teens have access to electronic devices to consume marijuana and nicotine, they can eat discreet edible cannabis products if they want.
Depending on the state, synthetic cannabis are also available (of course, it’s believed to be very similar to cannabis, but the makeup of synthetic marijuana is not really clear, or believed to be safe—and the surge in emergency room visits due to synthetic marijuana, far more than the real deal). At one point, you could purchase bath salts from the gas station of party store, to smoke or inject. The legislation surrounding those drugs constantly shifts, so new chemical compounds are created all the time, making it even more difficult to know just what you’re consuming.
And currently, teens aren’t really following the instructions about moderation. For many, moderating doesn’t even come close to the actual daily recommendations for alcohol intake (2 a day for men, 1 for women). That’s shown in this troubling statistic, “[w]hile five drinks is the definition of a binge according to the National Institute on Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse, 90 percent of all alcohol consumed by underage drinkers is consumed in volumes above this threshold.”
Marijuana use can seem innocent, but it can also predispose other stronger, more dangerous substance use disorder in the future. It’s believed that marijuana use at a young age, in teenage years, can actually triple the chances of opiate addiction.
As stated in a recent blog post, teens are now using drugs at lower rates. But the opioid epidemic points to a need for increased knowledge about drug use—children need to be informed at a young age about why drugs and alcohol can disrupt your life for the worse. The American Academy of Pediatrics now recommends delivering a solid message of abstinence to teens, rather than suggesting moderation—it’s believed that the message of moderation is commonly misunderstood, and teens take it as a sign to try everything once. Prioritizing the message of abstinence, above all, is believed to help to prevent future drug use. A message of abstinence that precedes moderation, anyway. And this message can be delivered early on, by pediatricians.
Most importantly, children and teens need to develop the confidence and self-assurance that they will know the right time to refuse them, and how to do so. And the ability to refuse any of the many illicit substances that reach growing teens can be a technique to be used for years to come.
