By 2021, fentanyl was involved in more than 77% of adolescent overdose deaths, according to the study. Fentanyl is 50 times more potent than heroin and is extremely inexpensive to produce, according to the US Drug Enforcement Administration. With drug use among teens currently at an all-time low, researchers say the amount of fentanyl sold to them in the form of counterfeit common drugs – and the lack of awareness of the risks they face from taking these pills – is high. part of the problem, Friedman said. Young people buy what they think are legal pills, but in reality “they are compressed pills with drugs made in the underground market and pushed to look real,” said Sheila Vakharia, deputy director of the Department for Research and Academic Participation at the Drug Policy. Vakharia did not participate in the study.
We change our schools and family discussions
The focus on reducing adolescent drug use in the United States has been successful, said study author Morgan Godvin, author and proponent of the overdose policy. The bad news is that big changes need to be made to reduce overdose deaths, he added. These are not the prescription pills used by the older generations (and teenagers sometimes took them out of their medicine cabinets). Fentanyl imitations are now being made, packaged to look almost identical to legal drugs, and sold on the street to teens unaware of the dangers involved, Godvin said. “We need to update their understanding so that they know that pills are actually becoming the most dangerous thing,” Friedman said. And with different levels of fentanyl in different pills, both people who experiment and those who take the pills regularly often do not know what they are taking and the risks, Friedman said. To address the rising death toll, Friedman, Godvin and Vakharia said schools and families need to focus on educating teens about the real dangers of drugs, what it looks like, how to access naloxone. , which is used to treat overdose and how to control drugs for the presence of fentanyl.
Damage reduction is not possible
Some teens’ families may fear that honest discussions about safe practices to reduce overdose deaths could open the door for their children to start using, but Godvin said otherwise. “This fear of sending the wrong drug message sends teens to their graves,” Godvin said. “(Parents) are as critical as trusted messengers to their own children or to those in their child’s peer group.” “Reducing the damage does not allow them,” he added. Not all teens will experiment with substances, but many will. Even with historically low drug use rates, nearly 20% of 8th, 10th and 12th grade teens used illicit drugs in 2021, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Both teens who will try drugs and alcohol and those who do not benefit from a sincere, subtle understanding of the dangers involved. If a parent says that people who experience ecstasy often die immediately and a child goes to a party where dozens of other teens take the drug and show up at school on Monday, they may lose confidence in the information they receive from trusted authorities. their lives, Godvin said. Instead, they often turn to peers, the Internet and popular media for information – something that can often lead to dangerous misinformation, he added. Discussions that teach which drugs are dangerous and which are completely dangerous, as well as how to handle drugs safely, benefit adolescents on multiple fronts. Both enable teens to make smarter decisions and give children the message that their families are there when they have questions as part of the problem and when they need help, Vakharia said. “When you give people better choices, they make better choices,” Godvin said.
