Teenagers substance abuse has been an old-time problem nowadays which cause detrimental effects to teenagers’ physical and mental health development. To better prevent your child from being teenage addicts, you, as a parent, must first know basic knowledge about drugs and why teens use drugs
The article will help you summarize the most used drugs by teen, what it is, how does it affect your child, how dangerous it is so that you can grasp an overview of teenagers drug addiction nowadays and educate your kids better.
TOP 3 most commonly abused drugs
Cannabis
What it is?
Cannabis is a chopped mixture of the cannabis Sativa plant with green-brown flowers, stems and dried leaves. A stronger form of cannabis, called hashish (hash), looks like brown or black cakes or balls. In recent years, the amount of THC (the active ingredient) in cannabis and cannabis products has increased dramatically.
How it affects your child?
When your child smoke cannabis, the active ingredient THC travels from the lungs into the bloodstream, then stops in the brain and other organs. High is the result of THC’s effect on the nerve cells that control sensory perception and pleasure.
THC also connects to receptors on nerve cells in other parts of the brain involved in thought, memory, coordination, and concentration. This could cause undesirable side effects, including difficulty in thinking and problem solving, loss of coordination, misperceptions.
How dangerous is it?
Research has shown that people who use cannabis over a long time may experience
more long-term side effects. For example:
- Changes in the brain: Cannabis can affect your child’s parts of the brain that are responsible for our memory, multitasking, and attention span.
- Fertility problems: Studies on animals show that high consumption of cannabis can reduce sperm count in men and slow ovulation in women. Pregnant women who use cannabis are more likely to have children with behavioral and developmental problems.
- Respiratory problems: Teenagers who smoke a lot of cannabis can have respiratory problems –like mucus accumulation, chronic cough, and bronchitis.
- Immune system problems: Heavy use of cannabis can make it difficult for the body to fight off infections.
- Emotional problems: Teenagers who use a high amount of cannabis are reported to have signs of depression or anxiety. Cannabis can aggravate illnesses such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.
Cannabis withdrawal can cause symptoms like feeling irritated/anxious/depressed, having trouble sleeping, loss of appetite.
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Crack Cocaine
What it is?
Cocaine is a powerful stimulant drug made from the leaves of the coca plant native to South America. Crack Cocaine is a crystal form of cocaine, also known as Crack. Chemical products formed in the form of small, shiny crystals linked together into small blocks like pebbles. When they smoke Crack, they make a crackling noise, so they are called Crack.
Crack Cocaine is the most common form of cocaine used by smoking rather than by inhalation, both of which have maximum euphoric effects. This drug is easy to store, easy to transport, so it is widely used in many countries.
How it affects your child?
The effects of Cocaine Cocaine appear almost immediately after use. Users will feel high, excited, energetic, alert.
That’s because Crack Cocaine acts on your child’s brain, preventing the gradual decrease of dopamine -a transmitter in the brain that makes people feel happy, excited, and optimistic.
How dangerous is it?
People in cocaine use will experience several emotional disturbances ranging from mild mania to depression (common during the cocaine withdrawal phase). Besides, your child will experience panic and obsessive-compulsive disorders.
When using high doses of cocaine, users can experience seizures, respiratory failure, myocardial infarction, and these complications can be fatal. Death from can also be caused by the combined use of opioids with cocaine.
Heroin
What it is?
Heroin is derived from the poppy plant and is a synthetic addictive substance. Although Heroin used to be a prescription pain reliever, it was banned in the early 20th century due to its addictive side effects. Long-term abuse of Heroin, in addition to being addictive, has other adverse effects on the body, especially the brain.
How it affects your child?
The brain contains opioid receptors, and it naturally produces opioid chemicals for the body to cope with pain. However, opioids do not last long and they do not strong enough to help cure chronic pain.
Therefore, many prescribed pain relievers contain synthetic opioids. Heroin was previously used as a drug because it binds to opioid receptors, leading to the release of dopamine and other neurotransmitters which stop the pain and help patients relax.
How dangerous is it?
Heroin reduces the brain’s ability to produce natural opioids, causing the brain to alter the structure of the neural reward system, making the user dependent on the drug. People who abuse heroin will find it difficult to breathe, even if they do not overdose.
When the body has less oxygen, the brain decreases the function of other systems, resulting in organ damage. Lack of oxygen can lead to brain damage. Heroin abuse has been linked to a form of brain damage that is similar to Alzheimer’s disease.
How can parents protect children and teen from drugs in the first place?
Create a friendly talking environment between you and your childrenư
Only by doing so, your children can freely share even the most sensitive issues with their parents. When your child is uncomfortable talking to you, they will look elsewhere for answers, and these sources are unlikely to be reliable.
Children who are not given appropriate and timely information are at increased risk of engaging in unsafe behaviors and trying drugs. You can start a conversation as:
- Ask your child’s views on drug: Instead of preaching, listen to your child’s opinions and questions about drug.
- Let’s discuss the reasons for not using drug: Instead of being intimidated, emphasize how using drug can affect the things that are important to your child.
- Pay attention to what your child watches: Social media, TV shows, movies, and songs can either fascinate or trivialize drug use. Talk about what your child sees and hears.
- Discuss ways to resist pressure and calls from friends: Show me how to deftly decline an invitation to use drug.
Build a friendly sharing environment between your children and parents, talk to them about cannabis openly like two friends, and your children are both more receptive and trusting in you.
Install content filtering tools
However, education from school and family only plays a part, as a teenager, your child will feel very curious about everything around him. As a result, there will be a higher risk of experiencing something they’re curious about.
That’s is a reason why you need to protect your kids by using content filtering tools like CyberPurify, which will notify you when your child is searching for information about cannabis or other drugs, etc. from there help you have an on-time solution like talking to prevent too-late consequences. CyberPurify can also filter out harmful content reaching your child such as pornography, accidental bloody scenes, weapons etc.
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