Summer Alcohol And Drug Alerts

 I was working out this morning, and several moms from my class who know I write a blog, wanted to give me a heads-up about some of the drug/alcohol issues that have made it through the high school parenting gauntlet of several communities. As usual, these are not fringe kids. These are kids from good families, good schools and supportive communities.

First. a new alcohol delivery system. Water bottles, ice tea bottles, red bull, oh, so yesterday. How about soaking a tampon, yup, a tampon in vodka, and inserting it in the vagina. Seems those little tampons can hold up to 1 oz of vodka, no chaser needed. No joke this is really dangerous. Please talk to your teen about this. Your ' I Get It conversation; " Honey, I recently heard that kids are soaking tampons in vodka, and than inserted the bloated thing in the vagina for the girls or the rectum (gross) for the boys. Apparently kids think that getting the booze in their system this way won't:

1. Give them booze breath and therefore pass a breathalyzer. This is wrong, breathalyzers measure blood content not smelly alcohol breath.

2. Kids do this because it gets them drunk faster. This is true.  The vagina and the rectum are very vascular and the alcohol goes directly into the bloodstream, rather than through the stomach. The bad news is that you won't throw up or have that gag reflex when your body tells you enough is enough. Because it is not mixing with gastric juices, you will go directly to the passing out and perhaps death phase, because there will be no signs that you are in distress. This makes it harder for hospital personnel to figure out what is wrong and then it will be too late. Maybe some of your friends have tried it, and lucked out that nothing bad happened. It is a crap shoot. It scares me to death. Please warn your friends who think it's an OK thing to do and please please please do not ever try this, it is so dangerous.

OK so that is the alcohol alert. Here is the drug alert. There is a new version of the drug Ecstasy called "Molly". It is a much much stronger version of the drug, and more dangerous. Kids can get very dehydrated from this drug and go into shock. This is a drug most kids think is pretty harmless. It is not. Please tell them.

If you have teens who you know are out partying. Rather than putting your head in the sand, you need to confront the issue directly. "I get you and your friends are out partying on the weekend. What are you going to do to make me feel that you are on top of making safe decisions.? These are some of the scary situations that are out there, plus all the usual binge drinking I know some of your friends, and maybe you do. Honey, I love you and need to know you know how to stay safe. "