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Teens' Stories Show How Accessible Drugs Are
September 8, 2009

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News Summary

A new survey finds that 23 percent of teens say they can get marijuana within an hour and that prescription drugs are easier to obtain than beer -- findings echoed in stories from young drug users themselves.

In an Aug. 26 article, CNN interviewed youths whose experiences mirrored the major findings in the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University's 14th annual Teen Survey. While looking for Pop Tarts at a friend's house, Jessi Danner, then only 10, found a bag of cocaine in a drawer. "There's this little baggie and she's like, 'I have seen this in movies. You shove it up your nose' – and so that's what we did," recalled Danner.

Danner, who became addicted, is now in the final stage of treatment at Vanguard Services in Virginia.

Similarly, Daniel Buruca was only 9 when he started using LSD. Devon Kennedy was in the 9th grade when she started using amphetamines and then quickly progressed to using cocaine and heroin.

Kennedy, who grew up in a Washington suburb, said she had no problems finding drugs at a young age.

"Every time I went to someone's house, the first thing I said was I had to go to the bathroom and I went to the bathroom cabinets and there would always be something in there. Everywhere you went, somebody had a parent who had something," said Kennedy.

The CASA survey found that the number of teens who say it is easier to buy marijuana than cigarettes or beer has increased by 37 percent since 2007,  and two-thirds of teens surveyed said drugs are used, kept or sold in their high school.

Debbie Taylor, Vanguard's president and CEO, said parents should ask pediatricians to give their kids drug tests during their yearly physicals so any problems can be spotted right away. "Children go so quickly into an adaptive and addictive phase that it's very difficult to reel them back at that point," said Taylor.

COMMENTS ON THIS ARTICLE:

Posted by maxwood on 08 Sep 09 09:17 PM EDT
"Ease of obtaining" cannabis does not yet translate into a less punishing black-market price differential compared to addictive life-threatening nicotine cigarettes. An ounce of cannabis for several hundred dollars compared to an ounce of tobacco (two packs of cigarettes in high tax state: $14) does not translate into a true choice. Prohibitionists must answer to the charge that the federal "drug" raids which do so much to raise the cannabis price are a part of the "profit from death" tobackgo genocice system.

Posted by Michael McCarthy on 09 Sep 09 11:06 AM EDT
You have the Constitutional right to poison yourself, but we the Government and the profit-making corporations we represent, will decide how, and with which substance you will achieve this.

Posted by Diane on 09 Sep 09 12:46 PM EDT
Maxwood, your innane comment about the price of pot is irrelevant and counter-intuitive to the statement in the article that pot is EASIER to get than tobacco. Therefore, the "drug" raids that you refer to have no relevance to how easy it is for kids to get their hands quickly on pot (and presumably buy it and use it). The price, then, of pot is immaterial and kids may, in fact, be getting pot as easily from their parents as they are getting alcohol, pills, tobacco, and apparently other drugs like cocaine from them. Read the article before you go off on your pro-pot tirades. The bigger civil liberties question is whether parents can or should have their children tested for illegal drugs. What effect would this have on the parent-child relationship and is it worth the cost? Drug testing is no substitute for good parenting, which involves early education regarding drugs and drug usage, monitoring your child's activities and his friends, and being clear that you do not approve of drug use. If you have a baggie or coke in your drawer, clearly you are doing none of these and you are, in fact, the problem.

Posted by jjay on 09 Sep 09 04:17 PM EDT
People....listen to yourselves. Do not overlay your issues and political point of view on top of the issue that our next generation, our youth, (the ones that will have to work hard to pay for your social security), are being exposed to substances that will harm their young bodies ounce for ounce more than your older ones, and that they do not have the experience to understand the implications of the harm they are doing to themselves. Are you so focused on your own belly buttons that you would rank an esoteric point of view, a philosophical argument, higher than protecting kids? Will there always be availability of something to hurt themselves with - sure. But why not make it harder to do so rather than easier? Test kids- better a professional since interpretation of tests and cross reactivities is best left to those that understand the science....( according to a current commercial 1 in 4 women can misread a pregnancy test- what do you think the ratio of misreads are on a drug test? I have seen and it is high) Have the chutzpah to stand up and care enough to know what is going on with your kid.

Posted by Brian McDonough on 09 Sep 09 05:25 PM EDT
this article shows that parents & schools have to do more today educating our children about the perils of misusing rx drugs., the hell addiction is, & screening what they're watching. a 10 yr. old knows to 'shove this in my nose.' wake-up, mom & dad...

Posted by HighSchoolPreventionist on 11 Sep 09 03:29 PM EDT
In regard to people wanting schools to be more active in educating our youth on the perils of illegal drugs, I say, "With what money?!?" With an inadequate education budget and current education philosophy focusing HIGHLY on high-stakes standardized testing, where does drug education fit into the school curriculum?

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