Identifying Drugs
In order to better protect your teen and to understand teen drug use, it is important to know the different types of drugs that are the most popular among teenagers. They no longer fall into categories like "barbiturates" and "stimulants." Most drugs used by teens today fall into these categories: club drugs, hallucinogens, inhalants, methamphetamine, crack/cocaine, prescription drugs and marijuana.
Club drugs
Club drugs are those that are popular among teens for use at parties. Teen drug use at parties allows for better acceptance of drug use. Additionally, it gives the illusion to teenagers that their drug use is not a problem, since they only do it occasionally and socially. Club drugs are known to produce, simultaneously, stimulant and psychedelic effects. When enhanced by music and lights at a "rave," the effects can seem especially exciting. Club drugs used by teens include ecstasy (MDMA), rohypol, GHB and ketamine.
Hallucinogens
These are drugs that change a person's perception of reality. Teens that use hallucinogens tend to see, hear and feel things that seem quite real. However, this is just an illusion — a hallucination. While naturally occurring things have been used to produce these effects in the past, today there are plenty of drugs manufactured to produce hallucinations. Hallucinogenic drugs include PCP, LSD, DMT, Foxy, Psilocybin and mescaline.
Inhalants
These are substances that one does not normally consider drugs. However, they are considered addictive, as teens that use them can come to develop a dependence on the effects that they receive from inhaling the chemical vapors. When teens inhale certain chemical substances, a mind-altering effect is felt, and this is now considered a facet of teen drug use. If you notice certain household chemicals are disappearing faster than they should be, your teenager might be involved in inhalant abuse. Some common inhalants are: paint thinners and removers, white out, felt-tip markers, aerosol sprays (such as spray paint, hair spray and even vegetable oil sprays), nitrates and gases (such as gasoline, propane and refrigerants).
Prescription drugs
Prescription drugs, as you understand, are drugs that have been prescribed to someone by a physician for a particular ailment. You may not think of these being abused by teenagers to get high, but it has become an increasing problem over the years. Many teens abuse prescription drugs by buying things like Ritalin from students with ADHD. Other teens steal medications from their parents and grandparents; such as OxyContin, and sell them to teens at school. Yet others may fake or exaggerate an injury to get drugs prescribed by their physician. The use of prescription drugs by someone, to whom they were not prescribed, IS illegal, and teenagers can quickly become dependant on these drugs.
Teens, and indeed many adults, may feel, in a certain sense, that since prescription drugs are prescribed by physicians, then it really isn’t a big deal if they are being used by people without those specific ailments. Indeed, the rapid increase of prescription drug advertising on television over the past 10 years may contribute to these perceptions. It is important to talk with your teenager and to make sure they understand that the drugs they see advertised are for people with specific illnesses, and that they will cause harm to the body otherwise.
Meth, cocaine/crack and marijuana
All three of these are individual drugs that are popular on their own, and do not necessarily fit into another group of drugs. Use of methamphetamine (meth) is made easy by the fact that it is simple to produce and offers almost immediate effects. Cocaine and crack both offer varying degrees of a high.
Marijuana is in a class by itself. Many parents believe that marijuana use is harmless. Over the last few decades the production of marijuana has changed and the pot kids smoke today is not the same as the stuff used in the 1970s. Marijuana is now cultivated to give it almost 80% more THC (the active ingredient) than marijuana that was used 30 years ago. The overall effect is that marijuana can certainly be addictive, and have harmful long term effects for users. Many kids use marijuana to self medicate when they are depressed or have ADD or ADHD.
Types of Drugs Used by Teens Source:
"ONDCP Documents: Facts and Figures," from WhiteHouseDrugPolicy.gov
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