Talk to your kids about drugs

GotWood

GotWood

Sayer of Fact
Joined
Jan 12, 2007
Location
Maiden, NC
I just had a friend of my daughter's die from a heroin overdose. She was 15! We meet this girl about 3 years ago and she spent the night with our daughter. I never saw her around after that but have heard her name through the years.

As a first responder I see this ALL THE TIME. I'm not sure what the appeal is but it's not something people seem to try once and done. Maybe you do only try it once but it could be the last.

Keep the family in your prayers. Talk to the kids in your life, and maybe some adults too.
 
so sad. Prayers..
 
I know he could still try em but weve been on Jake about not doin drugs all his life.From what I understand its not like the old days when you could try something and still be alright,the stuff today is soo strong that one try and your hooked or dead.
 
i feel like you hit the nail on the head. im a firm believer that parents are supposed to be their kid's "friends", but that also your kids have to feel like they can always tell you anything without fear.

cultivating that relationship with your kids, so that telling you things like (sally pressured me to take a pill, and i did), and not feel like they are confessing murder to cops.

If you watch that 13 Reasons Why documentary TV show, its so messed up in so many ways - it could have been avoided. Parents need to quit letting culture and social groups raise their kids.
 
Very very sad.... My heart and prayers go out to this family.




Not to sidebar...but.....

ckruzer said:
If you watch that 13 Reasons Why documentary TV show, its so messed up in so many ways - it could have been avoided. Parents need to quit letting culture and social groups raise their kids.
Click to expand...


My daughters have conflicting opinions on that (and I'm VERY proud of our relationship without kids, that they can talk to us about ANYTHING) series. My youngest (Jr in HS) felt it eye opening, and every parent/child should see it to know what is out there, but my oldest girl (Freshman in college) thought it stupid, and glorifying/justifying suicide and that young minds would be warped into thinking suicide is an out, and blaming others is OK. She said the girl that gave the reasons and killed herself was a self centered twat, and those "were not justifiable reasons, and she's deflecting BLAME"

Honestly I'm proud of BOTH my girls opinions and can see both their sides.

This whole sidebar is relevant, in that if you parent the way WE were parented, you're going to miss opportunities to be close enough to your kids to see these warning signs. But if you parent the way many do these days (Thanks Dr Spock) without true discipline, you're also going to miss out because you've coddled them. There has to be a delicate balance of authority, and safety. And you CANNOT parent with your head in the sand. Yes....instill values and ethics, but understand, they're NOT going to be perfect! They have to know, WHEN (not if) they fail, you will be there to help....NOT as a catch all safety net, but rather a coach in helping them get back on track.
 
GotWood said:
I just had a friend of my daughter's die from a heroin overdose. She was 15! We meet this girl about 3 years ago and she spent the night with our daughter. I never saw her around after that but have heard her name through the years.

As a first responder I see this ALL THE TIME. I'm not sure what the appeal is but it's not something people seem to try once and done. Maybe you do only try it once but it could be the last.

Keep the family in your prayers. Talk to the kids in your life, and maybe some adults too.
Click to expand...


My heart breaks for your daughter and her friend's family. I've never understood the appeal of drugs. Tried weed a couple times, never liked the lack of control (same feeling for excessive drinking, although I do have an occasional drink). I don't understand how anyone can think that they somehow will not get hooked. Since the Reagan administration, the government has been pounding it into our skulls. Although the Obama administration set it back a ways by releasing scads of "non-violent" drug offenders back on the streets and now everybody is upset at Trump for not declaring the heroine "epidemic" a national crisis. Excuse me, but Typhoid is an epidemic. Influenza is an epidemic. Zika is an epidemic. They can all spread WITHOUT intentional human involvement. Heroine cannot. Heroine requires people to sell it and people to buy it and people to use it. It's not spread by mosquitoes, flies, tainted beef or whatever.

Unfortunately, the same line of thinking that I have - that the provider of a drug that results in an overdose death should face a homicide charge - would eventually somehow get itself morphed into gun manufacturers getting blamed for school shootings (as is already happening). So we can't have it both ways. As painful as it is to think, the victim is also the assailant. We cannot affix blame to anyone else.
 
I imagine I am a bit younger than most on this site. Never tried heroin, but people my age are dropping like flies to fentanyl cut heroin. I think the issue for my generation, (I'm 29, call us what you will) is pills. The strength, and availability of opiate pills is high and with cost of blackmarket opiate pills, young folks are ending up smoking heroin. From my understanding, you don't smoke heroin for long before the appeal of interveneous heroin takes over. Then it's just a game of Russian roulette before you end up shooting something laced with fentanyl. The pills are the appetizer, the heroine is the hook, and the fentanyl is the nail in the coffin. 15 is so young. That's a real shame.
 
I'm 31. From my perspective I feel that the key to staying drug free for anyone, regardless of age is that drive to improve ones self.
The best way to explain that would be: Don't ever get bored. Find a hobby, a passion, and just remember that you are only as good as those you surround yourself with. A best friend, a spouse, a parent, teacher, etc, that also has a drive to keep climbing the ladder of life in any direction imaginable will not let you fall into a sinkhole, and help pull you out when you you accidentally step in one. It's human nature to place more value on life when we know there is a lot more riding on it than just us.
 
XJsavage said:
I'm 31. From my perspective I feel that the key to staying drug free for anyone, regardless of age is that drive to improve ones self.
The best way to explain that would be: Don't ever get bored. Find a hobby, a passion, and just remember that you are only as good as those you surround yourself with. A best friend, a spouse, a parent, teacher, etc, that also has a drive to keep climbing the ladder of life in any direction imaginable will not let you fall into a sinkhole, and help pull you out when you you accidentally step in one. It's human nature to place more value on life when we know there is a lot more riding on it than just us.
Click to expand...

It's also human nature to ignore all that and do it anyway, because you can't possibly end up like all those other people who got into trouble with it. Because you're different, right? ;)
 
Fabrik8 said:
It's also human nature to ignore all that and do it anyway, because you can't possibly end up like all those other people who got into trouble with it. Because you're different, right? ;)
Click to expand...
Ah yes, the ego factor. It's short lived.
 
XJsavage said:
I'm 31. From my perspective I feel that the key to staying drug free for anyone, regardless of age is that drive to improve ones self.
The best way to explain that would be: Don't ever get bored. Find a hobby, a passion, and just remember that you are only as good as those you surround yourself with. A best friend, a spouse, a parent, teacher, etc, that also has a drive to keep climbing the ladder of life in any direction imaginable will not let you fall into a sinkhole, and help pull you out when you you accidentally step in one. It's human nature to place more value on life when we know there is a lot more riding on it than just us.
Click to expand...

That's basically the entire description for being a product of your environment. My mom always summarized it as 'you are who you hang around'. There are exceptions to every rule though, you can do everything you said, let ego/pride/whatever get in the way, think you're invincible and above the law and get your ass in just as much trouble.
 
XJsavage said:
I'm 31. From my perspective I feel that the key to staying drug free for anyone, regardless of age is that drive to improve ones self.
The best way to explain that would be: Don't ever get bored. Find a hobby, a passion, and just remember that you are only as good as those you surround yourself with. A best friend, a spouse, a parent, teacher, etc, that also has a drive to keep climbing the ladder of life in any direction imaginable will not let you fall into a sinkhole, and help pull you out when you you accidentally step in one. It's human nature to place more value on life when we know there is a lot more riding on it than just us.
Click to expand...

Couldn't agree more. The only edit would be people like athletes who get injured, get addicted to pain killers and move on to harder shit to get that feeling once their scrips run out. Those are the ones I feel the worst for because many don't even know it will be an issue as they are being prescribed the drugs at first. Then it is down the rabbit hole.

Times are a lot different than when my parents were just telling me not to smoke pot or drink beer. Heroin in middle school/early high school WTF. Last year, there was a kid at my mom's school who got busted with his whole list of people he was selling to, amounts, money made, different drugs etc on his school issued laptop. Dude legit had an excel spreadsheet made out for the whole thing...in high school.
 
StretchASU said:
The only edit would be people like athletes who get injured, get addicted to pain killers and move on to harder shit to get that feeling once their scrips run out. Those are the ones I feel the worst for because many don't even know it will be an issue as they are being prescribed the drugs at first. Then it is down the rabbit hole.
Click to expand...

That could have very easily have been me...from about my junior year of high school until 3-4 years after college. Bulging discs, dislocated hips, broken legs...etc etc, did what you could to make it through the day. Even worse being at a prime time SEC football school, just go raid the medical closet...do what was necessary to stay on the field. I'm not really sure what kept me from going over the edge, or why I stopped taking them. I am a cocky, arrogant, asshole...but I wasn't taking because I thought I was invincible. It wasn't like I was bad kid...4.6 GPA in high school, 3 degrees and a 3.5 GPA in college, while playing football and starting my first side business...my folks were the type that called the parents of whoever I said I was gonna go hang out with. I just needed an escape from the pain. I haven't taken even an Advil in the last 5 years, but it is a weird feeling to see someone's pain meds in a cupboard or on the counter, and how easy it would be just to take them.
 
First and for most sorry for their lost. I'm only 29, but I remember people doing pills and coke in high school, wont my kind of folks. But yeah it's gotten ridiculous with how much these teenagers have access to now. Not how I want to live my life, but I'm not a believer that pot is a gateway drug. Pot I think should be legalized for medical purposes at least, but there's so many people whoever never smoked it in their life but have this huge opinion of why it would be so detrimental to society. Those ppl that start with one thing and start wanting to go more hardcore have some other type if issue they are trying to numb the emotional pain or some underlying issue. That's a whole rabbit hole of a debate that can go so many different routes for reasons.

I had a ex girlfriend that died a few years ago from a heroine OD and it was drugs that broke us up because I didn't know she was a pill head till she busted that stuff out one time and I felt super uncomfortable. Then 3-4 years later I get back from doing some Army things with my Army friends and get word she's gone. I feel horrible for her family but it's really tragic and it could be preventable.

I'm not a parent, even though I had scrubs on my fire team that I felt like I had to be their dad as their team leader, then later on as their squad leader. I realized you've got to win their respect, then just be fair to them and make them feel welcoming to talk to. I really feel like it's the disconnect between kids being able to talk to their parents about stuff. Most are too busy busting their ass to make ends meet.

When I first got my back checked out in the Army they threw Vicodin and Flexeril at me, and that lasted a week before I got tired of been dehydrated, couldn't poop, and everyone said I was a complete dick. My platoon Sgt at the time was like your being more of an asshole than you normally are. I stopped all that and will not take any pills anymore for my back. I think losing a few friends to the VA cocktails and to ODs has made me stay away from a lot of things. That and I hang out with all married people for the most part now.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro
 
ProbablyBroke said:
I imagine I am a bit younger than most on this site. Never tried heroin, but people my age are dropping like flies to fentanyl cut heroin. I think the issue for my generation, (I'm 29, call us what you will) is pills. The strength, and availability of opiate pills is high and with cost of blackmarket opiate pills, young folks are ending up smoking heroin. From my understanding, you don't smoke heroin for long before the appeal of interveneous heroin takes over. Then it's just a game of Russian roulette before you end up shooting something laced with fentanyl. The pills are the appetizer, the heroine is the hook, and the fentanyl is the nail in the coffin. 15 is so young. That's a real shame.
Click to expand...

Same story here, I'm 28 and have had a buddy from HS that OD a few weeks ago. I wish I knew why they started cutting it with fentanyl though, seems like its killing alot of people....
 
One of the "younger" guys here as well(30). Got prescribed Oxy for my knee surgery a few years ago. Pain was pretty bad(they fucked up the bandages). It got to the point where I knew to the exact minute when I was supposed to take another. Luckily that only lasted about a week, before I realized how bad it was getting. Threw my back out years later and I've got more Oxy/Percs/flexeral than I need. I took it when I couldn't walk/sit/stand etc. They stay in the cupboard now and, God willing, I will never need them again. I never really got into it as bad as friends/family have. Some people just have an addictive personality and they get hooked on the stuff. Hard to imagine a 15yr getting caught up in it though. Thoughts and prayers..
 
Back
Top