Drug use and rescue measures - heroin and it effects on health

SUSPECTING DRUG USE Rehabilitation of a chronic drug user can be a long, hard process. Prevention and intervention-turning youngsters off when they start turning themselves on-are problems of parental concern.

How can a parent begin to suspect that a child may be taking drugs? It's important to note any unusual changes from normal behavior. If a child who has always been friendly and outgoing suddenly becomes withdrawn and hostile, something is wrong though it may not necessarily be drug use. 

Some experts suggest that a youngster who keeps to himself for long periods in his room or in the bathroom, who is often on the phone and who is called by persons who will not identify themselves to parents, may be taking drugs. Other possible indications include a sharp slide in school grades, disappearance of clothing and personal belongings and thievery at home (used to pay for drugs), alienation from old friends, and taking up with strange companions. There are physical indications.

Person smoking marijuana has a strong odor of burnt leaves on both his breath and clothes which persists for hours after use of the drug. Marijuana dilates the pupils of the eyes and sometimes reddens and inflames the eyes. Other symptoms include sleepiness, lack of coordination, wandering mind, increased appetite, and craving for sweets. There may be a tendency to laugh and giggle excessively. 

If a person is high on LSD or another hallucinogen, the symptoms are almost unmistakable: severe hallucinations, incoherent speech, cold hands and feet, strong body odor, laughing and crying jags, vomiting. Symptoms of amphetamine usage include aggressive behavior, rapid speech, giggling and silliness, confusion of thinking, extreme fatigue, shakiness, loss of appetite.

Those for the barbiturates are stupor, dullness, blurred speech, drunk appearance, vomiting. If pills are found on children who deny they are illicit drugs, the pills can be identified by a druggist or physician. If cigarette papers and possibly small seeds are found in clothing pockets, they may well indicate marijuana usage. When a child is sniffing glue or drinking cough medicine containing narcotics for kicks, he may have a dreamy blank expression and a drunk about that, the seriousness of the situation justifies the invasion.

There should take effort then to find out whether the child has only experimented a drug regularly. In discussing drugs with a child, the parent can, and should, use an intelligent, reasonable approach. It is far more likely to be successful than an authoritative pronouncement. A youngster can be reminded that LSD usage is extremely dangerous risk-taking; that it has caused hundreds of victims to end up in mental institutions or to suffer injuries such as three University of California at Santa Barbara students suffered when, on an LSD trip, they stared 50 long at the sun while holding a "religious conversion" that they never again will be able to read. A youngster resists any argument that marijuana is as addictive or is dangerous as heroin.