Comments on: New Teen Drug Epidemic?

By: salvatore

salvatore — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 13:18:24 +0000

You people need to understand that its not the pot that is the gateway drug. Whats one of the first thing kids try? Take a minute and think about it……….. Cigarettes!!!! 9 out of 10 times thats what they try first. I know most of you doubt thats the case but look deep inside yourself and you’ll know its true. Im 21, and my dads been smoking all of my life, it was the first thing I tried, then alcohol, then some pills, THEN I TRIED POT!!! And another thing, its the goverments fault that all these kids are trying these hardcore drugs e.g (heroin, crack, cocaine, meth) because they goto these street thugs, and when they dont have pot they offer something else to make some more money.

I have been smoking pot since 10th grade, and I graduated, I still manged to get a job, and yes I went to college. You need to stop blaming a harmless plant and start blaming yourself and your goverment.

I do agree, pot is not for everyone just like sugar isnt for diabetics or aderal isnt for someone who doesnt have add/adhd.

One more thing, I suppourt the legalization of pot, and all other psychedelics!!!
Put yourself in a cancer patients shoes, or someone who is on the verge of dying.
Dont you think they deserve some kind assurance or happiness? Do your research before talking, you dont know everything.

By: PJ

PJ — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 01:37:45 +0000

My 21 year old son is addicted to heroin. Anyone who thinks this can not happen in their family is fooling themselves. My son tells me that heroin is becoming a drug of choice in the high school community.

He became addicted to opiates stemming from a visit to the dentist. He tells me that many people he knows become addicted this way, either through an injury or dental procedure.

We are very close and he talks to me about everything to do with his habit. He has been arrested three times and now has a felony on his record. The problem I have with drugs being illegal is the ruining of a young person’s life, over a problem created by the medical industry.

Children should not be prescribed opiates, period.

Addicts should not be considered criminals. The amount of money spent on incarcerating these young people should instead go to treatment programs, like the ones on your show, that the average family cannot afford. We are offered crappy clinics, quickie treatment plans, which do not give long term help and court.

Decriminalizing drug abuse and instituting treatment instead would allow the addict to maintain some hope for the future. At 21, my son’s future is very bleak, since the chance to obtain future employment with a felony record is slim, at best, in our present economy.

Treatment for addiction is entirely too expensive for most families to afford. Long term inpatient treatment is probably the only route for opiate addiction, but the “affordable” places are frequently booked up for weeks, leaving a family to search on a daily basis for openings.

Please realize that these addicts are people. Someone always loves them, until their addiction and the lack of available treatment leaves them alone and hopeless.

We are currently seeking somewhere to take my son that we can pay for. He is still using and I am afraid I will lose him before we find him a place willing to help.

By: marjie nelson

marjie nelson — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 20:12:19 +0000

I have a 17 yr old son dx with bipolar (on resperidone and seroquel) that has been in the psy hosp x 2 since april for suicide and manic episodes. Hes also been charged as an adult for MIP of tobacco/pot/alcohol, was caught in school drinking and selling pot. After the 1st hosp he came home depressed and seemed that way x 4 months, about 4wks ago, and the meds had been increased he seemed happier. We found out he was using spice since we took everything away and he couldn’t get anything he became manic, and is currently back in the hosp. The problem is we can’t take care of him because he doesn’t care if he dies or goes to jail, just wants to be left alone to smoke. His PO won’t let him out of the state of MI and there is no place in MI that has a dual diagnosis and is inpatient and he will not go voluntarily. I’m afraid/know he will end up dead or in jail if he doesn’t get some long term help.

By: Isabella Vigil

Isabella Vigil — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 21:18:59 +0000

Dr. Phil, I don’t even know where to begin on the subject of drugs. My 18 year old son is addicted to heroine, not marijuana, not prescription drugs, but heroine. I have to believe that this is the worst drug to be addicted to and it has become the drug of choice in our city. My husband and I have tried everything, from taking him to the emergency room, sending him for 10 days to detox, calling and scheduling appts. at rehabilitation centers and he keeps going back to it and refuses to get help. It’s killing me and my family, but sadly enough, it’s either going to kill him soon or he is going to end up in prison. We as a family have finally decided that tough love is what’s going to have to happen. We have to go on with our lives, and stop blaming ourselves for what he has become. Any advice would be appreciated.

By: Charissa Waller

Charissa Waller — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 22:37:07 +0000

The answer to this question is something I ask myself often. I am a mother of an 8 yr od girl, and a 5 year old little boy. I am also a mother that has suffered from prescription drug addiction.
I have been in a program for 5 years, and in there I learned that addiction is spiritual in nature. It was my root problem…addiction was just the symptom.
It is imperative that we give our children something to believe in. Someone or something to fill that void that we all have been born with. If they cant find something pure to fill it with, they will grasp desperately at ANYTHING.
I make sure my kids are safe and fed. That is physical. I make sure I ask them how they feel, and shower them with love. That is emotional. I problem solve with them, and help filter things they are not ready to understand. They also go to a counselor for things they need more help with than I can give. That is psychological. But if I do all those things, and leave out their spiritual health, then I have failed as a parent.
I think most parents lack in this area themselves, so they dont know how to incorporate spiritual things into their children’s lives. Still others dont teach anything to keep from “messing” up or dont want to seem radical to outsiders.
Here is the thing….our children need moral compasses. They need to know that there is something out there that is more powerful than themselves. And since we have taken prayer and moral codes out of our schools, we have to make sure we do this at home.
If we want our kids to win the battle against drugs, then we are going to have to give them tools to fight with. We are sending them into the battlefield unarmed and vulnerable. Its no wonder we are losing so many of them to this awful disease! Much love!

By: marnie

marnie — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 14:47:36 +0000

i have 2 daughters addicted to heroine. this is the single most excruciating, horrific, and devastating disease. We have been through countless programs including; counseling, rehabs, mental institutions. my oldest daughter became pregnant and was prescribed methadone. I am mortified that anyone on this planet would ever consider this a form of recovery. my grandson suffered withdrawals and was in nic/u for one month. my daughter still nodded out while she was on it. the only difference between heroine and methadone is that one is legal and one is not. once they started weening her off of it, she went straight back to using heroine again. heroine, methadone, suboxone, is all the same.
my youngest daughter is now in jail on felony drug related charges. she had just spent 8months in intensive inpatient treatment. she was back out using within a week of her release and in jail within the same month. this has been almost 10 years battling this addiction with my children. i have a serious gut feeling that we are at the end of the road. My children are now facing the ultimate choice, life or death. i am quickly learning that i dont even a say in any of it.
i am beginning to realize that THERE IS NO CURE. there is no amount of begging, pleading, manipulating, fighting, talking, or praying our way out of this nightmare. this may sound cruel, but at this point in my children’s addiction i can only save what is left of my own life. my children have had every opportunity and outlet to recieve all the help they could ever want. they have refused.
after all this time i can honestly say that i am completely without hope that they will ever recover. when hope is all i once had to guide me through this. i am preparing myself for the worst. completely letting them go is my last ditch effort to save my children, my grandson, as well as myself.

By: C STEWART

C STEWART — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 16:52:39 +0000

This is a heartbreaking situation as I have had first hand experience with this. Both my older kids, (19 and 18) believe that marijuana is not harmful – it is a herb… their father (we are divorced) has been a habitual smoker since his teens and both kids are aware of this. I completely believe in marijuana being the gateway drug and I believe this generation of kids is so busy numbing themselves from the realities of growing up, that they abuse drugs not only as recreation, but as a substitute for the natural good feelings that they don’t know how to achieve because of their lives of excess. I am deeply saddened that our teenagers of today do not know how to appreciate the simplest things in life. Because of drugs, (which escalated to heroin), my son has ended up on probation, in prison for six months, rehab for 60 days and is now on a tether for 6 months. He is angry at the world and us and thinks we should still pay for his mistakes. My daughter is an 18 year old with an 19 month old son, trying to get her GED in between hanging out with her friends, partying, drinking and smoking pot. To top it off, legalizing medical marijuana is a mistake in a generation where drugs are running rampant and stealing our youth of their childhoods. It sends them a very mixed message. DRUGS have devastated our family… short of a terminal illness.. this is the most horrific thing a family can go through. I am at the end of my rope trying to figure out how to help these children… did we make mistakes as parents, sure, but so did my parents – and thank God I didn’t resort to drugs. I would be happy to start a group like MADD – I am lost as to where to start with such an epidemic, but our children are being lost.

By: Debbie Wicker

Debbie Wicker — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 21:13:21 +0000

I believe that drug dealers and drug gangs are actuallymarketing drugs to kids and using social media and other public relations techniques to promote drugs. They start by telling them that pot isn’t bad for you, then they get them using pot regularly and then move them to pills and ultimately heroin. They want addicted customers to make the most money.

Kids are falling for the scam, so sad!

By: FosterBoys

FosterBoys — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 18:19:04 +0000

The Gateway Theory is one of the few arguments marijuana legalization opponents still cling to because of their anecdotal “evidence”. Seems they all know someone with a serious drug addiction who started out smoking pot. Maybe high school should start teaching the “correlation does not equal causation” revelation instead of saving that intellectual nugget for the college-educated.

Legalization opponents are getting desperate. Their go-to argument these days is that proponents are being hypocritical by not agreeing to have all drugs legalized. Thankfully, the days of hypocrisy and ignorance surrounding marijuana are quickly coming to an end. It’s a great time to be alive.

By: Jea

Jea — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 08:14:02 +0000

I watch Dr. Phil daily. I wanted to mention my nephew, who has a very bad (as if there is any other kind) addiction to oxycodine and such. We are in Florida. My sister tried an intervention, but it was unsuccessful due to lack of a follow-up plan. She’s just way over her head. I’ve not heard about it on the show, but there is another avenue that can be tried and we are in the process of it with my once artistic, smart, handsome, and loving nephew, who has now been addicted for many years. The avenue is called the MARCHMAN ACT! All the addicts know about this and are scared and paranoid about it. Anyway, it is similar to the Baker Act, but this this designed to obtain an intervention of sorts from the legal system when the addict refuses help or says he is now clean and off these horrible drugs, can quit on his own, etc. We’ve heard it all. A person (my sister in my case) must petition the court under the Marchman Act. The court serves the documents and a court date on the addict. They must show up, or a warrant will be issued for their arrest. The addict shows up for the court hearing and replies to the allegations. If the judge sees fit, the addict will be required to go through a screening process. If the counsellor determines the addict, in fact, is addicted and out of control, then the court will require he get drug-tested almost daily, go to NA meetings – no excuses or they will get clean in jail. Anyway, there is a plethora of requirements, but we are still in the process. My nephew has an addicted enabler/wife, who has burried 2 husbands (maybe 1, but no matter), and she’s doing everything she can to keep her clutches on my nephew who is almost 20 years her junior. Anyway, Dr. Phil and others, try looking into THE MARCHMAN ACT if you do not have the resources to help the addict in your life.