My daughter first mentioned it to me some weeks ago.
She told me that she had told her younger brother to steer clear or it if ever it was offered. Apparently, it’s nasty stuff.
She knows because she’s tried it.
That’s the scary thing. The fact that my little girl is experimenting with all sorts of pharmaceutical concoctions and there’s not a damn thing I can do about it.
All the ‘Just Say No’ talks in the world cannot prepare you for that first realisation that, in the long run, it didn’t make a damn bit of difference because drugs are such a major part of their world and you’re just really lucky if your child survives the experience.
And the worst part about this is that Mephedrone is classed as a ‘legal’ drug. Also known as M-CAT, it is a stimulant which is available on the internet, as well as in ‘alternative’ shops, and has an effect similar to taking LSD or MDMA with cocaine, but is far more potent than any of those drugs. It comes in the form of a powder, so it can be snorted and is currently the fashionable drug of choice. It’s popularity has escalated rapidly because of the ease of availability and the fact that it is known as a ‘legal high’.
So, back to Mephedrone. Not to be confused with Methadone the substitute for heroin, it hit the headlines very powerfully this week with the deaths of two teenagers here in the UK. Up until now, it had been perceived as a ‘safe’ drug because it was classed as legal. The problem is that, as fast as the powers that be classify these drugs as illegal, the underground chemists formulate new ones to take their place.
I suppose I should just be glad that my own daughter has lived to tell the tale, but it doesn’t let me rest any easier in my bed.
The worrying thing is if they legalise it then it will get mixed with all the wrong things and cause even more deaths.
And after what you have already said about your daughter we can’t even say Education is the answer either.
I dread to think just how many have tried it that hadn’t tried it before because it’s been in the news, you would think it would put them off but usually in these situations they just have to try it for themselves.
Very sad!!!
Yup, that was my fear about the publicity aspect too. It seems we cant win whatever we do. Kids will be kids! :(
Tell your kids to beware of GHB too, though that is slightly less popular now. It’s nasty, nasty stuff which usually gets mixed in with cola in a 2 litre drinks bottle and passed around at parties. It’s basically industrial floor cleaner that they’re drinking. Seems to depress respiration and make people piss themselves from what I’ve observed. The other really nasty one kids don’t know all the risks of is ketamine-the animal anaesthetic. That often gets heated to put into the desired form of taking it (crystal to liquid IIRC) problem being it gives off cyanide when it is heated, and that’s usually done in a closed kitchen to stop any neighbours picking up the smell. Obviously the cyanide is dangerous enough in itself but ketamine is nasty…people taking it look blissed out but actually have nasty hallucinations and can stop breathing terrifyingly easily.
I had heard about ketamine and mentioned it to my daughter who thought I was an idiot to suggest that she would indulge in horse tranquiliser
His sister’s warning will have more of an impact on him and backs up your guidance, so good for her.
It doesn’t always work like that in our house :)
It still strikes me as odd that pot is illegal (having no deaths per overdose in ten thousand years) while that stuff you speak of is legal.
2 deaths, you say?
400-500 people die of aspirin use every year in the USA.
near 20000 die of prescription drugs.
400000 of smokers…every year.
And that IS pretty odd, wouldn’t you say?
There seems to be no rhyme nor reason to the legislation of the various forms of ‘drug’-related abuse. I was thinking earlier today that the price of fags should be doubled and the extra 50% given to the health service to fund the additional pressures placed upon it by smokers
It’s my one big nightmare as the parent of a teen. It’s not that I worry he’ll take drugs, because I know he’s more sensible than that. It’s that situation where he’d be at a party, and he gets handed something to take/try… and then feeling he has to.
Thankfully he’s very sensible about not overdoing it on the drinking front – I buy his cider (he prefers it to lager), and it gets rationed – one a night (he is only 17 after all). But I can’t be there to be the protective mother all the time!
You just have to hope that your son will be inclined to listen to your daughter – I feel your dread, J xx
Judging by my daughter and her friends, I think you’re really lucky to have retained so much control up to this age! Hopefully, you have set in place enough sensible mental safeguards that he will have the fortitude to be himself, not one of the pack x
I can’t imagine how I would react presented with such a situation. The good part for you, I think, is that she volunteered this information. This is better than if she had kept this information to herself in fear of reprisal from you or in fear of being judged or misunderstood. The revelation shows an openness and honesty, which above all is what I hope to have from my children.
I am very proud of the fact that my daughter feels she can talk to me about anything in the drugs/sex area
Mixmag, the dance magazine do a large annual drug sruvey by their readership.
Here‘s what the results said about Mephedrone
The side-effects concur with what my daughter and her friends had experienced