Tips for Discussing Teen Prescription Drug Abuse & Pharm Parties

For the past few years Teen Pharm Parties and prescription drug abuse have frequently been in the news. Stories about their existence have been routed around the Internet. Some reports say the whole concept is a media concocted story and Pharm parties are not really happening among teens. Even if a Pharm Party is not occurring, drugfree.org reports that 20% of teens and tweens admit to prescription drug abuse. Is your teen going to a pharm party? Does your tween have a prescription drug abuse problem? As a parent have you educated yourself enough to know what to look or listen for?

A Pharm party is a gathering of individuals where each tosses a few prescription drugs into a bowl for others to share. Teens and tweens go through parents medicine cabinets and take a few pills to add to the mix. The bowl of drugs is known as Trail Mix. Once the items are all in the bowl, mixed up, it's a Russian roulette of picking a few things to see what their mixed reaction does to your body. The web site for Parents, the Anti-drug reports that more than 2 million teens and tweens between 12 and 17 reported abusing prescription drugs in 2006. Prescription drugs were the drug of choice among 12 year old tweens.

Here are a few tips for protecting your teen or tween from prescription drug abuse.

Don't read an Internet news report and instantly accuse your teen of participating in Pharm parties. There's nothing that will push a teen or tween to rebel faster than being accused of something without evidence or without cause.

Use your three R's before you approach the subject with your teen: Read, Research, Review.

Read everything you can about Pharm parties and teen prescription drug abuse. Look for reliable sources. Drugfree.org and the antidrug.com both contain information useful to parents

Research what is going on in your local area. Contact the local police department to determine what the abuse rate in your area is. Talk to the school counselors to find out if there is an identifiable problem in your teen's school. Even though you may not think there is a problem in your tween's school because of the younger age, do not bypass this conversation. Ages for prescription drug abuse are not limited to the teen aged years. Talk to your doctor about resources for parents which may help you stay educated on the matter.

Review what you have read and researched and consider your family circumstances. Think about the information learned and assess your own situation. You must objectively think of things that happen in your home and in your child's daily life to know if your child could potentially be abusing drugs.

Open communication with your teen is important. Being able to talk about drug use of any kind is important. There are several means of entering the conversation. Perhaps a TV show is addressing the situation, or you might have a newspaper article about something that happened with local teens, or maybe you just received a new prescription. Take those opportunities to start a conversation about what your teen or tween knows about prescription drug use.

Secure your medicines and encourage your tweens and teens to do the same. You can do this by reminding them that medicines have different effects on people and that a prescription for a person is based on their medical need, their weight, and other medicines they are taking. By discussing this, you can approach the subject that sharing their medicines with friends doesn't help the reason they were given the meds, and could cause a serious medical reaction for the friend.

Talk to your teen regularly. If your teen doesn't want to discuss the subject of drugs immediately, you may accept an offer to talk later. It is important to allow your teen to talk when they are ready but also important not to let the subject drop. Discussing it tomorrow is an option, but tomorrow never comes is not. If your teen avoids the conversation repetitively, there is potential the subject is being avoided because of consequences. Reinforce that you are there to help the teen and your love for them does not change based on what they tell you.

Learn the language and listen for it. Know that Skippy is not just a peanut butter, it's another name for Ritalin. Orange Crush and skittles don't just come from the local 7-11, they are also names for over the counter meds which have DM or Tuss in their names. And if you hear a conversation about roboing, it's probably not about Wall-E or some other favorite robot. Robo-tripping, robo-dosing, and robochugging are all references to getting high from Robitussin type medicines. Become familiar with the most commonly abused drugs and stay alert to references to them or computer searches involving them. A resource link is included at the end of this article for a one page list of the most commonly abused drugs.

Remember this is not a one time conversation. Conversations on proper drug use should start as soon as your toddler knows what medicine is and will continue for the rest of their childhood. Talking to your teen about pharm parties, drug use, situations with friends who have drug problems, all are reminders that you are concerned and that you will stay aware of circumstances which could be harmful to them.

Remember that time is critical. It's a tough subject to approach but the longer you wait, the more involved and detrimental it could become. For the sake of your teen or tween, if you believe they are abusing any type of drug and you are to afraid or emotional to approach the subject find someone to help you do it. Regardless of your fear, your guilt, your emotional state, the risk of not discussing teen drug use could be a deadly one.