Almost half of all American parents never speak with their kids about the dangers of meth, and reflecting this, an astonishing percentage of high school kids either see little harm with trying the drug, or even worse, see some benefit.
Crystal meth is scary. Incredibly addictive recreational use can so easily progress to addiction, and the physical, mental spiritual harm done by an addiction to meth is beyond compare.
The health risks of meth
Meth addicts can expect greatly accelerated physical aging, cognitive declines, early dementia, and a fantastically increased risk for a host of diseases and cancers. Characteristic meth mouth is but one of the obvious and external signs of the damage of the drug, and a few years of meth use visibly ages the body by decades.
The mental anguish of a meth addiction also devastates, and the high is punished with extreme lows of depression and despair, and those meth users who do manage to quit their addiction face months or even years of very intense depression and dysphoria as the brain struggles to right itself from the legacy of abuse. The sad fact is that some people can never completely recover from a meth addiction.
So it’s very worrying when a recent survey commissioned by the non profit Meth Project finds that more than half of all parents never speak to their kids about the dangers of crystal meth.
Scary attitudes
Perhaps even more disturbing is the attitude today’s teens hold towards the drug, and a scary percentage do not fear the drug, and even more worrisome percentage sees some benefit from taking the drug.
33% see little harm in experimenting with crystal meth, 25% actually see some benefit to trying the drug (weight loss, fun) and almost half of all surveyed reported that their friends would not have any problem with them if they started experimenting with crystal meth.
Teens are prone to experiment with drugs and alcohol, and parents can only do so much to protect their kids from the dangers that lurk outside of the home, but neither are teens unresponsive to drug education and those teens that do get the facts about meth are far less likely to report positive associations with the drug, and far less likely to risk addiction with casual experimentation.
The job falls to parents to do a better job teaching kids of the dangers of meth and warning them of the ease of addiction, and the lifelong battle that would then ensue. We won’t beat meth in this country overnight, but we could do a lot to better the problem just by getting informed and speaking with our kids about real dangers of the drug.
A teen meth addiction is surely every parent’s worst nightmare, and of all the drugs out there–and there are some very destructive intoxicants–meth is by far the worse, by far the most addictive, and by far the most destructive.
It’s never a guarantee, but a few words with your kids can do a lot, and may just save a lifetime of heartbreak.
