Pharm Parties, Proof Of America’s Pharma-Dependent Culture
I suspect some of you have heard of the faddish “pharm parties” amongst some of today’s teens. The basic idea is kids get their hands on whatever prescription medication they can–statins, anti-depressants, painkillers, antipsychotics and so on–and dump them into a bowl at a party. Then they go around taking them willy-nilly without a clue as to what they are taking or to dangerous interactions. The Flint Journal has an interesting account of the phenomenon in Michigan. Suffice to say, that teens have ended up in the hospital because of the practice, which appears to be a direct result of their parents having way too many prescription meds around and not under lock and key. Dumb.
The teens strike me as being pretty dumb, too. When I was a teen during the late-70s, the most radical thing I ever heard of my peers taking was an inhalant called Locker Room. It struck me as a one-way trip to brain damage and I never tried it. I felt the same way about LSD.
Things have gotten so wild around the abuse of prescription meds that federal officials seem to be more concerned about the misuse of drugs like OxyContin than they are cocaine and marijuana. That tells you something.
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