Pot Tarts, Toka Cola & other Teen Drug Dangers

I normally post a foodie recipe on Tuesday (which I'll get to later) but I feel compelled to write about what I've learned the last few days about the new dangers to our children.

Yesterday, I watched The Doctor's television show which exposed a new wave of drug and alcohol abuse by our youth. I know kids have experimented with these things for as long as they've been around but this 'new wave' is really scary. According to the show, teens are inhaling Vodka-that's right, I said INHALING vodka-using dry ice and pouring the alcohol over it, snapping a lid on the cup and breathing deeply. Apparently the drunken effects are more immediate than through normal ingestion. Scientists and doctors believe the fumes secret through the sinuses going directly to the brain. As if this weren't bad enough, doctors say there's no way to know 100% for certain but they suspect a high level of C02 from the dry ice is being inhaled which may cause other brain and lung problems later on.

PLEASE take a few minutes to read about these new drug dangers to our children here. Topics covered are Vodka Bongs, how easily Dr Travis learned how to make homemade meth using the internet, heroin addiction, vaginal and rectal drug use, and kids even getting high off HAND SANITIZERS and huffing compressed gas used to clean your keyboard! For complete details of the show including a links for advice if you suspect your teen is on drugs, click here. Want to start the drug conversation with your kid? Check out The Partnership for a Drug Free America's website at www.drugfree.org.

Another scary lesson I learned was how drug dealers are now targeting our children. Our YOUNG children. They disguise marijuana in candy bars, bubble gum, and other popular snack foods. If this weren't bad enough, drug dealers cleverly package them to look like the products we buy our kids at the grocery stores. I had to look twice at the drug laced products Dr Travis showed to see the slight difference in name or logo. What parent would think twice about seeing POP Tarts, Kit Kat, or Butter Finger candy bars in their kid's back packs? The drug laced substitutes are not only packaged to camouflage a parent's watchful eye, they're designed to market to a YOUNGER crowd since teen drug use is on the decline. Drug dealers are now trying to hook our young children so they'll have a stronger 'customer base'. Here's an ABC story from last year's DEA raid of a California based "Marijuana Candy Factory". I find this incredible and now more than ever am convinced we must educate our children from diapers to diploma on the dangers of drug and alcohol abuse. No child is too young to be targeted. If we teach our kids about drug dangers like we teach them to walk, talk, read and write then perhaps we can finally win the War on Drugs once and for all!