Five Drugs Your Teenagers are Likely to Abuse: How to Identify Them and What to Do About Them

As a youth counselor, I have many years of education, training and experience when it comes to working with adolescents. I’ve worked with kids with almost every problem imaginable. The number of kids using drugs these days is alarming. If you have a teenager, chances are your kid will have the opportunity to at least experiment or try using drugs and kids are becoming addicted at alarming rates.

Many parents are relatively uneducated about illicit drugs, what influence they have on people, how addictive they are, how available they are and so. But this is my job and it’s my job to know these things. In general, the strongest indicator that your kid might be using is drastic changes in behavior. This can range in anything from their grades, their friends or how they dress. If it’s very drastic, if they make big changes in a short amount of time, you might want to pay close attention to them.

I have listed the top 5 most commonly used and available illicit drugs influencing teens today.

1. Marijuana

   This drug continues to be one of the most widely used drugs world wide. The pot that people are smoking today is pretty strong compared to the old stuff. The good news is that it’s not a real destructive drug. It doesn’t destroy your body and brain as rapidly as most other drugs do. The main thing about pot is that it’s viewed as a gateway drug and that most heavy drug users start with smoking pot and move onto the harder drugs. Some of the things that may indicate pot smoking are things like laziness, a sudden lack of caring about things like school. They may seem lethargic and tired or a lack of motivation.

2. Cocaine

   Cocaine is a very popular drug worldwide, it comes in a white powder that is snorted. It’s an emotional stimulant so people that use it experience a pretty high sense of euphoria. Indicators of cocaine use is mostly that sense of euphoria, the person seems a little detached, they may have a glazed look in their eyes or have delayed responses.

   Cocaine is a pretty expensive drug and expensive habit to maintain. It can be really difficult for a teenager to maintain a habit this expensive without stealing which can be another indicator of drug use. If you have money or valuables that go missing, it’s not uncommon for kids to steal from their parents to try to support a habit.

   Cocaine also takes a toll on the body, it’s been known to really do a number on the sinuses and sinus cavities. Some cocaine users have been known to use a lot of nasal sprays like Afrin, which also can be habit forming.

3. Ecstasy

   Ecstasy is a relatively new drug and it first showed up in the U.S. less then twenty years ago. For awhile, ecstasy was spreading like wildfire across the country. This drug comes in pill form and is swallowed. It’s easy to take, easy to hide and gives you an enormous buzz. People who have used it report feeling incredible amounts of happiness and love. If you notice times when your teenager is drastically happy, loving or affectionate, more so then usual, this could be the culprit.

   Most kids obtain it at parties or raves which are large public parties known for playing techno music, having fluorescent lights and colors and large amounts of ecstasy. Until fairly recently, it was hard to know what long term effects of this drug were but as it turns out, prolonged use literally destroys brain function. The massive release of happy chemicals in the brain is detrimental long term. Even after five years of active use, it can turn a person into a virtual vegetable.

   It’s very hard to determine where these pills have come from, where they were made and who made them and they have often been laced with other harmful substances like hallucinogens and even poison. Because of this, kids have actually gotten kind of scared of it and it’s popularity has decreased.

4. Heroin

   Heroin is a very dangerous drug to use because it is one of the hardest drugs to stop using. Heroin is addictive physically and mentally. It comes from the opium plant where all other opiates come from and this is where the medical field gets all it’s anesthetics and drugs like morphine and oxycontin.

   When someone takes heroin, it basically replaces the natural endorphins that the body produces naturally that phases out pain and discomfort in the body. When someone uses heroin for long periods of time, the body stops producing it’s own endorphins which makes quitting a very excruciating experience. It can take awhile for the body to start producing those endorphins again and in the mean time, the individual is completely miserable and under a type of physical torture. This is why it’s good to catch heroin use early, some people who have used it for several years may even die if they quit cold turkey.

   Because it is often injected directly into the blood stream, it is very common for heroin users to have bruises or other injuries on their bodies, the most common area is on the arms.

   A person using this drug may also act euphoric, detached or completely absent. This drug is very dangerous because it is very addictive. I once worked with a teenager who had been using heroin, except he had been smoking it instead of injecting it. He said that he knew it was a heavy drug but he first used it when one of his peers told him it was opium, he was shocked when I told him that heroin comes from opium.

   This just showed me how uneducated kids can be, he thought it would be relatively harmless to smoke opium but had no idea that heroine came from this plant. Part of my advice is to educate yourself about drugs and in turn, educate your kids.

5. Meth

   I have intentionally put these drugs in the order that I have in terms of what is least common and least deadly up to what I believe is most common and most deadly. I have intentionally left this drug for the end, it is number one. Meth has many names and it’s important for people to know them. Some of the most common names for it are meth, crystal meth, crystal, speed and ice.

   This drug is a major and I mean major problem in our country right now. Almost any large or major city is experiencing a major outbreak of this drug. The main reason for this is that it’s relatively easy to make and thus easy to find as well and is less expensive. It’s highly highly addictive and the physical consequences are enormous. Speed is a good name for it because it is a physical stimulant, it raises the heart rate and releases adrenaline.

   It’s been said that it’s a life accelerator, it accelerates your body and it accelerates your life. People who use it long term experience major weight loss, loss of hair, loss of teeth and skin discoloration to name a few. It is a disgusting drug and is very easy to spot. In terms of behavior, meth users are extremely paranoid, often thinking that everyone is out to get them or that everyone is watching them.

   They seem to think the government is conspiring against them and that their friends and family are involved. Meth users have been known to destroy property and living areas because they are looking for hidden cameras. They think they are hiding their drug use from others but it is very easy to spot. They often have severe insomnia, only sleeping two or three hours a night, which also contributes to the paranoia and the physical taxation.

   Instead of sleeping or working, they may spend their time doing strange things like reading the phone book, hours may go by and they think it has only been ten minutes. This drug destroys lives and needs to be stamped out. If your kid is on drugs, there is a good chance he/she is using this one or has experimented with it.

If you suspect, or know that your teenager is using drugs then you have a very difficult situation to approach. The best thing to do is to catch it and intervene as early as possible. Kids seem to bounce back easier from drug use then adults do and at times do not get addicted as easily. Addiction is addiction and if your kid is truly addicted to one of these drugs or another one, it can be a long hard road.

It’s important to try to maintain a close relationship and keep lines of communication open from the time they are very young throughout their life. The better you know your kids, the sooner you will know something is wrong and can do something about it.

Drug users are notorious for lying and doing anything to cover up their addiction. Most people that are addicted do not have the presence of mind to realize they really have a problem, they just think that they are doing something they enjoy and they have control when they really don’t. Many resources are available these days for parents who have teens in trouble. If you think your kid has a problem, please intervene sooner then later and use those resources.