Alarming Facts About Teen Drug Use

Teen drug use can have long-term negative consequences for children. As such, it is important that parents can tell whether their child might be using drugs.

Early detection could be the key to treatment and a second chance before it's too late.

When I began teaching alternative education ten years ago, the biggest drug-related concern was that a kid would have a nickel bag on them or that some would come in so visibly high that you had to “handle it” instead of letting them sit quietly to finish their work.

Now I have to worry whether the student’s odd behavior is pill or meth related.  I have to wonder if campus security is on the way to remove the kid who is seeing dancing unicorns on his desk.  As an alternative teacher in 2015 I cringe each time a kid whips art supplies across the room because he/she is fiending for a cigarette/joint/next buzz.

Before anyone gets their pantaloons in a bunch, I’m not about to blame marijuana as a gateway drug.  There’s not one single thing that has led to the drug-induced idiocracy today’s generation is comfortable with. Technology has made it okay to shorthand our language into words like ‘bae’, until it is no longer recognizable.  Even the poor farmer in 1776 could read at a higher level than today’s teens, despite their lack of technology and global information.  The depletion of funding to mental health programs has made it nearly impossible for schools to get help for their students who may be dangerous.

In some schools, they call the police on a kid for building a clock but, if you work in an under-privileged school, you call the police on a student making threats while high on meth and they say, “Well, we’ve asked him to go home.  He’s high right now so we don’t see the point in trying to talk to him further.”

I wish I was making that last quote up, but it happened.

Not all but many parents perpetuate the drug culture to their children to the point that many students have trouble believing that their teachers don’t spend their weekends throwing massive parties.  Many homes have more bongs than books and very little mutual respect.  

Sometimes we can say, “I’m going to call your mom” and the student will beg that you don’t and will do what has been asked of them.  Other times, they will say, “Go ahead.  Call that bitch.  Tell her to bring me food.”

At this point in my career, I’m aiming to return to the South.  The pay isn’t the best but the benefits are better, there’s more job security for good teachers, and they’re a little behind Portland, Oregon when it comes to drugs.  Ten years ago I was young enough and patient enough to handle the city’s drug culture but, at this point, I want to work with students who want more for themselves and I am not afraid to admit that.