From a very young age, it is drilled into our heads that heroin is bad. However, we are also taught to trust professional adults like doctors and to listen to what they say. If a teen gets an injury and is prescribed an opiate painkiller or they just hear that taking them can get them high, they are more likely to believe it is safe. If your child found heroin in your medicine cabinet, they would be terrified, but because the feeling towards opiates is not as worrisome is causing a deadly crisis.
Dangerous Medications
Just because a doctor has prescribed a medication doesn’t make it safe. The similarities between heroin and a popularly prescribed medication, Oxycodone, are nearly identical, as they produce the same feelings in the brain and body. Another medication that is mostly prescribed to cancer patients and other extreme pain injuries is fentanyl, which is 50-100 times more powerful than morphine.
One Night of Fun Turns Into Addiction
Teens might think that it’s harmless to take a few pills from their parent’s medicine cabinet for a night of partying. There is a chance that one or more of the teens will like the way the pills make them feel and will experiment with higher dosages until they become fully addicted.
Signs of Opiate Use
What may seem like normal teenage angst could actually be the beginning symptoms of a dangerous opiate addiction. Look out for:
- Moodiness
- Loss of motivation
- Anti-social
- Pin-like pupils in both dark and light rooms
- Extreme drowsiness
If you find pills that you suspect your teens are using but you don’t know what they are, you can find them on the drugs.com pill identifier.
IF YOU SUSPECT YOUR TEEN OF EXPERIMENTING WITH DRUGS OR ALCOHOL, WE PROVIDE ACCURATE AND CONFIDENTIAL DRUG TESTING. CALL (816) 800-9699 OR CONTACT TEST SMARTLY LABSTODAY. YOU CAN MAKE AN APPOINTMENT AT ANY OF OUR 4 KANSAS CITY AREA LOCATIONS.
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