When children get a little older and start going to school, they start being buried in half-truths and myths dressed up like fact. Those fictional truths can cover anything from the best Pop-Tart to eat for breakfast to how to get high by putting an aspirin in a coke. Remember that one?

During their early, development years, you can be sure that on some busy schoolyard or in a school bathroom, they will run into another student who will offer them a way to get high. Don’t make the mistake of believing that your youngsters are safe from drug offers until they are in high school and will know better than to accept the offer of drugs.

Your children need to know about the dangers of experimenting with drugs before they go to school and they need to get that information from you, their parents. It is important that you do not downplay the dangers of using drugs, but give the straight facts to your children.

It is a fact that the younger a child starts using drugs, the more vulnerable they will be to true addiction later in life. As an adult, there is so much misinformation about drug use in the media and from other misinformed adults that you will have to be really clear about what you tell your children.

They will learn the difference between fact or fiction from you. In order for that to happen, you will have to learn the same differences before your child needs to know it.

A common fictional “fact” that circulates among children of all ages is that just trying a drug to see how it affects them or to relieve stress or to be part of the “in group” will not harm anyone. You need to know that trying drugs only once can cause damage to your child’s mind and body…sometimes permanently.

Children under the age of 14 who drink alcohol are five times more likely to be alcohol dependent as adults than those who waited until they were 21 before having a drink. Another fact for your arsenal: Children who first tried marijuana before they were 14 years old had more than a 13% chance of suffering abusive drug dependence compared to a little over 2% of adults who first used the drug when they were 18 or older.

Don’t make the mistake of believing that trying drugs at a young age is a natural process that all children go through and will cause no real damage. Be aware of what your children are doing right now. Save them while you can!

In the last couple of years a new designer drug with a benign name, “bath salts,” has surfaced as an extremely dangerous stimulant that affects users like cocaine or meth do. State officials are beginning to report deaths directly related to its use. Recently, Poison Control Centers in 33 states have reported incidents related to “bath salts” use.

One of the major problems with this designer drug is the benign name that makes customers avoid legitimate spas and their own bath time pleasure. The truth is that legitimate bath salts and spas are not related to this drug invasion and this designer drug has no real value as a legitimate bath salt.

According to the DEA, this illegal, recreational drug was introduced to the United States about two years ago. It is typically snorted in powder or swallowed in pill form. Some smoke it or inject it intravenously. Its effect on the users body is similar to the high from using Ecstasy and other stimulants like cocaine and methamphetamines

The list of life-threatening effects:

• Psychotic episodes
• Delusions
• Panic attacks
• Increased heart rate
• Heart attacks
• Chest pains
• Agitation
• Paranoia
• Hallucinations
• Strokes

And:

•  Death
• Suicide
• Homicide
• Self-inflicted wounds
• Child endangerment

The major manufacturing and exporting companies responsible for creating “bath salts” are located in China and India. They typically mislabel the product to evade detection and use the Internet to sell it to distributors around the world, including the United States. Commonly “bath salts” are sold in head shops, gas stations and convenience stores. They are also available in dance clubs and “raves,” selling for $40 to $100 per gram. A gram can cover approximately eight to 40 doses.

 This dangerous drug has several branded, street names: “Aura,” “Ivory Wave,” “Russian River,” “Xtreme,” “Goodfellas” and several others, depending on the location. One trick the sellers use is to label the drug “not for human consumption” to avoid the federal narcotics laws.

“Spice” and “K-2” are also becoming popular and are dangerous designer drugs that can cause convulsions, panic attacks and suicidal thoughts. “Spice” and “K-2” are synthetic marijuana and the incidences of severe overdoses are increasing in emergency rooms.

These synthetic drugs are legal in most states right now, but that doesn’t mean they are safe. (Source: DEA) One thing that users of these designer drugs often forget is that you do not know what is in them.

Sadly, in today’s world, you, the parents, need to stay ahead of the many opportunities for disaster that your children face every day.

Many smokers really wish they could quit that habit for several reasons. Some are having breathing problems and frequent bouts of pneumonia or bronchitis. Others are having problems with the no-smoking policies in most workplaces, restaurants and public buildings.

Whatever the reason, quite a few smokers are turning to the new electronic cigarette as a viable compromise and an alternative to quitting cold-turkey and suffering through that agonizing, but inevitable withdrawal.

Been there, done that several times myself.

While this e-cigarette might be considered the smoker’s salvation, some cautions need to be considered when you decide to use it to quit smoking. To start with, most of the electronic parts, including cartridges and batteries are manufactured in China, where our high standards of public safety are not part of their manufacturing requirements.

Even the “Made in USA” claim is a problem since many companies still use the China manufacturing companies and consider that just assembling the
e-cigarette in America is the same as manufacturing it in America. They would be very wrong!

Some companies have started producing their own e-liquid, which is the material vaporized in the e-cigarette, and create it in a chemical base of vegetable glycerin, nicotine and flavorings. That same vegetable glycerin is used as a natural sweetener in many preservatives and foods. Most
e-cigarettes from China use a petroleum by-product originally designed for fog machines, called Propylene Glycol.

If you are considering improving your health by switching to the e-cigarette, be very careful which brand you use. Research online for product reviews about the e-cigarettes you are considering. Check with your friends or fellow employees to get recommendations.

There is a huge, huge fight raging between the tobacco companies and the
e-cigarette providers, including conflicting “evidence” about how the e-cig will harm children who smoke already. Most of it is centered on the dangers of Propylene Glycol, which can be found in a long list of food products.

The tobacco companies are screaming and predicting dire results for children using e-cigarettes to look cool around their friends. Nothing like facing a real competition for the tobacco dollar and a severe hit on their bottom lines to start their scary predictions of childhood disasters.

Do your due diligence! You don’t want to start smoking something that will harm your body more than your usual cigarette brand is causing. And you don’t want your children to do it either.

Many parents think they know their kids. They are maintaining good grades in school, enjoying sports, making friends and fulfilling everything you ever wanted for them. They could also be using drugs and might be addicted.

Unless some real problem surfaces, like erratic behavior or a huge change in your teen’s personal hygiene, you might be willing to just believe that drugs are not a problem in your family. As a parent with a teenager acting like he or she have always behaved, it would be easy to believe everything is just fine in your family.

When the topic of drug use surfaces in neighborhood get-togethers or school meetings, it would be normal for you to think, “Not My Kid! If he was using drugs I would know it!” The truth is that if your kid was using drugs, you’d be the last to know it. They are experts at hiding drugs in plain sight, like in false bottoms of normal toiletry containers or in the spines of books.

The average age for kids to begin experimenting with drugs is 13; some even younger. On the average, teens will be experimenting with drugs for two years before their parents, you, will discover it. A lot of brain and body damage will be created while they are just starting to develop processes that will carry them through the rest of their lives.

So, what can you do to keep your children safe and drug free? There is one thought that children should be drug tested when they are 12 years old. While that might seem extreme to you, it will set your mind at ease and, more importantly, give your kids a good excuse to turn down offers of drugs. If their reason for refusing drugs is that their parents drug tests them, offers will go away.

If you decide to do the drug testing, don’t just have it done once and believe that your child won’t use drugs. Continue the drug tests on a random basis as part of your child’s regular health checkups. That’s what parents do, isn’t it? Keeping their children safe?

If you listen to your children, you will hear all sorts of fantasies and beliefs that have no relationship with reality. Many are based on a limited view of the real world or a result of wishing for a different reality. You know that’s a true statement. No? How about Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny? Didn’t you create that belief for your children while they were growing up?

Well, myths and legends are not strictly a product of juvenile minds. We all have them, but the one’s that endanger your children are something you shouldn’t ignore.

Check these out:

Myth #1…Drug addiction is a deliberate choice by those who use drugs

There’s no doubt that the first drug use was a choice for those children and teens who made a decision to try drugs for the first time. While first-time use has its dangers, continual use alters both brain chemistry and body chemistry, which creates an undeniable need for the drug. Addiction!

Addiction is not a voluntary decision or choice, but a byproduct and the result of frequent use. Once the drug has invaded your child’s brain and other organs, your child is no longer in control of his future and will need all your help and strong rehab to reclaim his life.

Myth #2…Legal prescription drugs are not dangerous like illegal street drugs

The simple truth here is that ALL DRUGS ARE POISON! Legal and illegal doesn’t matter. All those federal regulations stressing how safe prescription drugs are mean nothing in real life. Any drug can be abused and cause real body and mind damage to users. Many who abuse prescription drugs end up in a rehab facility. That includes both teenagers and adults.

Myth #3…Marijuana is a natural plant byproduct and not harmful

This self-serving belief just won’t die a natural death. The fact is that marijuana can cause cancer and several other serious health problems.
Use of marijuana can create memory loss, the inability to concentrate and a serious lack of coordination. Even worse, it will reduce your child’s ability to learn since it reduces the capacity to absorb and retain information. Smoking one joint dumps as much carcinogens in your child’s body as smoking five (5) cigarettes does.

Don’t ignore these serious dangers that will be ignored by your child.

It is a well-known fact that teens will experiment with almost anything that is different or exciting. Part of their growing up or rite of passage is to explore whatever is new and different and that is to be expected. However, when they experiment with drugs, they are playing with mental dynamite.

Drugs are chemicals and not some benign recreational delight that makes a teen feel like a grownup for a few hours. Those chemicals take up residence in your teenager’s brain and start redirecting the way nerve cells send, receive and process all information. The chemical structures of different drugs work differently, but they all start making changes in developing brains immediately.

Some of those exciting drugs can make changes in teenage brains that will be permanent after repeated use.

Marijuana use, for example, activates neurons that impersonate natural brain neurotransmitters and can lock onto them, replacing natural responses with abnormal responses in teenager brains.

Amphetamines cause nerve cells in teen brains to start brain damage in two ways. One way is to release more natural neurotransmitters than is required for the brain to respond normally. Another effect prevents the normal recycling of brain chemicals, which exaggerates the brain messages the teen is receiving.

The target for all drugs of abuse, like nicotine, marijuana, cocaine and others, is the brain’s reward system that lives in the limbic system. The reward system normally releases dopamine to create feelings of pleasure and to tell the brain to pay attention. Drugs capture this system and send large amounts of dopamine that flood the brain’s natural system, causing the “high.”

Teenage years are loaded with stresses and confusions due to the power of emerging hormones and the need for good grades, acceptance and trying to fit in with the popular kids. This is a time for your teen when everything matters, like the brand of their backpack and who sits with them at lunch. Not world class problems for you, but your teen is under deep stress and not telling you about it.

A chemical high is a quick trip to feeling good and not dealing with normal growing up stresses. Stay connected to your teenager. Talk about the difficult topics. Acknowledge their natural stresses and give them good advice. Avoid a teen disaster in expensive shoes.

I smoked for at least 40 years. I really enjoyed it and had no intention of ever quitting, even though I had frequent bouts with pneumonia and related problems. I loved my Marlboros and kept them close to me through every personal crisis that hit me… death of friends & family, loss of jobs, financial problems, dysfunctional relationships … normal things that usually happen to normal people.

I tried to quit three or four times and actually did for a week here and there before some perceived crack in my comfort zone drove me right back to my best friend, Marlboro cigarettes. I read all the steps to quit; even followed some of them for a few minutes or a couple of days. I even “worked down” from my beloved red pack to the light version.

I made a general announcement, “This is my last cigarette! I quit!” My belief was that I would chat myself into a public hole that would embarrass me enough to prevent relapse. Wrong!

I found things to keep in my mouth to distract me from smoking…hot cinnamon candies, mints, fake plastic cigarettes, nasty-tasting mouthwash. Wrong! Nothing tasted like my Marlboros and I was never distracted from the craving to smoke.

I read that after three days, the physical addiction was gone and the rest was emotional, Well, after three days my emotions were pounding a drum beat inside my head and I was sure I was going crazy. I thought about that emotional thing for a while…while I was happily relapsing into nicotine heaven and working up to another bout with pneumonia.

One day, while taking a shower, it came to me that I was using cigarettes as my personal reward system…do the dishes and have a cigarette…take out the garbage and have a cigarette…wash clothes and have a cigarette…put them in the dryer and…you get the idea.

Being somewhat logical, I decided to try quitting smoking in a new way…one I designed myself. I gave myself permission to get some Marlboros anytime I wanted to, but I had to wait 30 minutes before I did it. This removed the “absolutely forbidden” component of trying to break this habit. While I was waiting for the 30 minutes to pass, I got busy doing something I enjoyed…like playing computer games, writing my genealogy, watching a really good video.

When I felt a need to smoke, I took notice of what task I had just finished …dishes, making the bed, picking up dog poop on the lawn, etc. This brought the entire nicotine addiction problem down to something I could handle and could understand. Most times, when I got myself involved in some distracting activity while waiting for the 30 minutes to pass, an hour or two had actually gone by.

I have to admit that more than once I grabbed my keys and started out the door to buy some Marlboros. Once I analyzed my own need to smoke (reward system) I could say to myself, “You’ve got to wait 30 minutes,” and it worked. I haven’t smoked for well over 20 years.

I have to admit that I still feel that twang of wanting a cigarette when I am stuck in traffic on some congested freeway. I look around and people in most of the cars around me are smoking. But it is a momentary passing urge that disappears in a moment and no longer controls me.

Other times, the urge to smoke sneaks up on me when I am frustrated by something, like not being able to fix the paper jam in the printer or the shredder, not being able to find something I put in a special place so I could find it again…everyday frustrations of living. That urge is fleeting and passes as soon as I notice it. You can bring this freedom to your life, too. I know you can!