A new teenage epidemic is hitting the scene with an explosion. Its contents are nothing new to drug users, but the form it is now available in is. The narcotic oxycontin and its close relative roxycontin are synthetic forms of heroin in pill form. Their popularity is exploding and people in high school are becoming both mentally and physically hooked on this drug. Unfortunately, this plague is being noticed amongst the teenage demographic and oxycontin is widely obtainable to them at their school and in their inner circle.
Oxycontin is synthetic heroin, or what can be referred to as an opiate. Oxycontin comes in pill form, but rarely do oxycontin addicts swallow the pills as they are intended for seriously sick people. Instead the drug is often sniffed, shot up with a needle, and even smoked on aluminum foil. You will hear your son or daughter refer to oxy as “deaf” or “blues”. At times you might just hear your high schooler talking about pills. When referred to in this wide-ranging manner it can insinuate anything and many users call them merely pills.
The most common form of abuse is usually snorting the drug. This is accomplished by crushing the pills up into a powder form and snorting them in a similar fashion to cocaine. This can be very damaging to the nasal cavity, and was not the way this drug was intended to be used for very sick and dying people. Injecting is also customary and this is done by crushing the pill and shooting up the contents with a syringe. Surprisingly, smoking the pills has become quite widespread as well. To achieve this the user crushes the pills and places the powder form on a piece of aluminum foil. They then light the underside of the tin foil with a lighter and suck the smoke through a drinking straw or a hollowed out pen. This produces a very strong chemical component and is devastating to the lungs.
When someone is addicted to opiates they become physically dependent. With other drugs there is a psychological addiction. This can be more powerful than most people ever understand. With opiates, the psychological addiction is still there and can maybe be considered stronger than other drugs, but in addition to that the user gets physically addicted. Self-restraint from the drug will make the user violently sick. They will vomit excessively and have the chills despite running a high fever. Their body will ache terribly and they will be in extreme pain.
Often the best solution to this dilemma is a teen intervention where your child will be forced to realize the destruction their addiction has caused those around them. When faced with this realization, often times the teen decides it is time for a change. They come to the conclusion that they are really hurting the only people that love them and most of all hurting themselves.
If your high schooler is bringing teen drug abuse into the house, you are desparate for a solution asap. When this happens you are desparate for to find them a good teen treatment so that they can work toward becoming sober and living a good life again.
