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Teens Getting High With Medicine Cabinet Drugs
You may not be familiar with the terms "dexting" and "skittling," but that's not the case for many young people. They're the new ways teenagers are getting high with drugs from a medicine cabinet."They would tell me how many to take, what they would do," 16-year-old Jenna said.Jenna is in recovery now, her drug abuse started with alcohol and marijuana then grew to include pills stolen from the medicine cabinets of her friends' parents.
"It would make me feel numb; calm," she said. "[I] didn't worry about much."It's a high being shared by a growing number of teenagers nationwide.The statistics are staggering: in a 2006 survey, almost 20 percent of American teenagers reported abusing some type of prescription drug, with 10 percent abusing over-the-counter drugs. Seventy percent of teenagers get the drugs from a dealer most parents know, prompting county health officials to issue a warning.It's not just the drug abuse that's new, it's the way the teenagers are sharing the pills in so-called trail mix parties.Dr. Marshall Lewis of the Health and Human Services Agency said, "Kids get together, mix them up in a bowl, grab handfuls, don't know the drug high they're gonna get [but] know they're gonna feel something strange, the combo can be deadly."Jenna has words of warning for parents who might not recognize the signs of abuse: "They need to be careful if the kids are never home, coming in late, not calling to check in. They need to watch out; pay more attention."Parents who believe their child might have a drug problem have a hotline they can call for help. You can reach the county's access and crisis line at 800- 479- 3339.
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