Pharm Parties:Teens Abusing Prescription Drugs
Drug Abuse Among Teens in on the Rise, but the Drug of Choice May Be Right in Your Medicine Cabinet
The teens at these "pharm parties" get the drugs easily from other teens at school, parents medicine cabinets, neighbors medicine cabinets, Grandparents medicine cabinets. They will sometimes go pick up their parents prescriptions from the pharmacy and steal the bottle. There are any number of ways teens are getting their hands on these drugs and they think because they are prescription drugs, that they are not as dangerous as street drugs.
The teens who have the pills, dump them all into a large bowl and mix them up. Most teens don't even know what it is they are taking. They pass the bowl around from one person to the next while each teen takes their turn taking a hand full of whatever is in the bowl and swallowing it.
Hospitals are finding out later after these kids overdose or get sick from taking too much that there could be anything from Tylenol and codeine to Lorazepam, Xanax, Vicodin, Oxycontin, Soma, and Ritalin just to name a few.
They don't have to be at a party in order for this to happen any longer, It's not uncommon for teens to bring baggies to school with a trail mix of different pills and share them with their friends.
Kids as young as twelve are experimenting with prescription drugs and some of them are dying after trying the pills after only one time.
Today kids are able to get ahold of prescription medicines because they are so widely prescribed. Some forums that teens frequent have even started giving tips, in order to tamper with the time release feature in some pills, in order to make the time release feature easier to get by. They tell the kids if they crush the pills and snort it they will get a better effect, a better high. Teens are told if they don't know how to tamper with a particular pill all they have to do is a Google search to find out.
If you want to make sure your ten doesn't get any old pills from your medicine cabinet, don't leave old pills around, flush them instead of putting them in trash containers.
Most parents don't think their teens do this until they get a call from the E.R. telling them that their kid has to have their stomach pumped. Or sometimes, has died.
Published by Mary Kirkland
Mary is originally from Redondo Beach, California and now lives in Las Vegas, Nevada with her husband and daughter. Mary has had extensive experience with small animal care as well as rescuing and re-homing.... View profile
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18 Comments
Post a CommentGood, informative content. But, PLEASE change the part about flushing pills down the toilet; it's dangerous to the environment... bring them to a pharmacy for proper disposal.
Pretty damn stupid to take a bunch of pills you don't know what are. If you feel the need to get high at least reasearch what you're taking.
We're only alive for a little while, but you're dead for a long time.
I am a 41 yr old addict, and would like to share some things with kids. Just say no. Don't smoke weed, don't drink booze, and definitely do not take the man made stuff....will get ya hooked in a matter of days. It creates a living hell, a self made prison of sorts. It will do things to you that you had only heard about in health class. It steals your soul and makes your life a waste of time. Your parents and friends will abandon you at some point, and the things that you love will quickly dissapear. You will lose your favortie stereo first, then your license, then your job, your pets and everything that you thought matters becomes nothing more than a distant memory. If I can save one person, I have done my job....please do not take drugs or smoke cigs, it just sucks the money andn life right out of ya...there are so many better things to do. Find a girl, have a good time, workout, study and become a member of this ever challenging society. Do for yourself what you have alway
parents who come to sites like these to get guidance are ignorant.
Well, you mention skittle parties, but as teens (i hear about this all the times from my friends) we/they are starting to get the picture that one medicine is all you need, Dextrometherphan (I wont tell what its in) is a common thing to get high off, and since it is in prescribed and non-prescribed medicine, it is the "skittle" of choice now for parties like this, and i do agree, your thought of marijuana not being as bad is right, but marijuana is illegal and at first hard to get, Trip c's and stuff like that, all you have to do is make a phone call to someone over 18 (if you're under) to get you a few pills and bam, it also definitally doesnt cost so much, Teens want to get high (as a teen) i see it everyday, you can hear stories just walkin down the hall about how good there "high" last friday night, was, and since most schools don't have drug testing, or there drug testing doesn't test for these kinds of drugs, that is also a problem.
Great topic. The truth is there we just seem not to believe them sometimes!
Very informative article!!..scary but very real situation..if you go to www.mydeathspace.com you can see all of the young people (from myspace) that have died from doing this !..Excellent topic!!
Thanks for this article!
Good job Mary. I am amazed that teens of any age survive. They all think they are ten foot tall and bullet proof it seems.
Hey Mary, sorry to go off in the comments section :) I've just seen this too often, and don't understand it. *waves and apologizes* Good article.