More Teens Passing up Marijuana for Oxycontin, Glue

[karyn]

from Palm Springs Desert Sun

WASHINGTON -- The use of marijuana and other illicit drugs declined slightly among teenagers in 2004, but dangerous inhalants and the highly addictive prescription painkiller Oxycontin are becoming more popular, a new national drug survey says.

The percentage of 12th-graders who reported using any illicit drug during the past year fell to 38.8 percent in 2004, compared with 39.3 percent the previous year, according to the study done by the University of Michigan for the National Institute on Drug Abuse. That continued a decline in teen drug use that began in the 1990s.

But the study also points out ominous trends in teens’ drug use. The use of inhalants such as paint thinner, glue and gasoline increased sharply among eighth-graders in 2003 and continued to rise this year, a sign that inhaling, or "huffing," is rebounding in popularity after many years of decline.

Inhaling chemical fumes is most common among younger teens because products that contain them are cheap, easy to find and legal to buy.

Oxycontin, which emerged in drug-abuse reports in 2001, is gaining ground among high school seniors, the report says.

When surveyors first asked teenagers about the narcotic in 2002, 4 percent said they had used it during the past year. This year, 5 percent of 12th-graders said they had used the Oxycontin. It is developing a greater following than heroin, amphetamines and some "club drugs" such as GHB.

"We think that these are disturbingly high rates," says Lloyd Johnston, a research psychologist and principal investigator for the study, which is known as the Monitoring the Future Survey. "One in every 20 students (using Oxycontin) -- that’s a lot to begin with."

Johnston attributes the rise in inhalant abuse to "generational forgetting." Many youths have not been exposed to anti-inhalant media campaigns that were discontinued several years ago, he says. Such abuse declined for several years after an anti-inhalant advertising campaign in 1995.

[Raina]

hmmm.. I am not too sure how I feel about this subject. I , myself am drug - free. By my choice for my life. But I am not at all opposed to other people taking drugs.

hard one

[morbid_lady]

i started out huffing and popping painkillers back when i was 12, i stopped that shit when i was about 13, cuz,well, it was really fucking me up. now i just stick to weed.

still dealing with some permenent damage to my nervous system from the huffing.

[Tequila Zaire]

This seems to come back every couple of years huh? The danger of sniffing any kind of chemical popular for getting high is such a gamble you really gotta wonder if it matters anymore to warn people. They just don't get it or understand. Granted the ads to warn about them have stopped but I honestly don't think they worked as well as listed above...I think people just got bored and moved on.

Oxycontin has been steadily rising over the last few years so it's no shock it's so popular...thing is that is a seriously nasty drug to get clean from. Dark times for addicts given that addictive and lethal nature of so many newer drugs...it's not even so much of a purity level issue as it is a general mentality of mass consumption...in our age of Super-Size and Jumbo this and that you gotta wonder if that plays into some people going a lil overboard on their drug use...

[Kidthorazine]

i think this is because pills and glue are so much cheaper and easier to obtain especially for younger kids i remember when i started smoking weed i only new one or two people to get it from and when they werent aound or something i had no idea what to do with myself if i wanted to get high fortunaely i had enough willpower and desire to stop myself from going to desperate measures such as glue and painkillers (i have never done glue andonly done pain pills once) unfortunately many kids dont give a shit and have no willpower this is part of the reason that i am for the legalization of marijuana because it is much safer than any other illicit substance out there even alchohol i dont even know why the government is against it probaby too many ties to the liquor bussiness

[CorporateGoth]

Pain killers are riduclously easy to get. I know people who go to their Dr., make some false claim of pain and discomfort....Viola'... Here's a scrip for Darvocet / Perkedan / Vicodin..... whatever you want. Back when I had my motorcycle wreck they gave me a 3 month scrip for Percocet without even really looking at me. I threw my back out at work and wrote me a scrip BEFORE they looked at me (no joke).
The glue / huffing thing I just dont get. I guess Im lucky, cause weed was never hard to find back in my heyday (Neither was Acid, Ketamine, Shrooms....), so I could never imagine resorting to glue. I did try huffing butane ONCE and despised it. I really felt like a skid row addict the whole time, maybe its just me. It is amazing what some people will resort to when their "drug of choice" is not available. I had a friend of mine call me at 3am once to inform me that he discovered that you can get high (apparently its like tripping) by drying and smoking toothpaste!

[Lucius]

weed is always good!
I want to hallucinate though.
Any suggestions

[Kidthorazine]

weed is always good!
I want to hallucinate though.
Any suggestions

LSD is relatively safe as long as it isnt contaminated or something