Tackling the problem of drug addiction in your family

Drug Addiction doesn’t happen overnight for the person abusing the drug. Often, families never see it coming. When someone you love begins their long journey down the road of drug addiction, it is a path that seems to have more twists and turns than a rollercoaster. The ups and downs occur every day and seem to be never ending. As a family, you start to doubt anything the family member has ever told you. If anything in your home was ever missing, you suspect they took it. If they go to the bathroom, you think they are doing drugs. The trust of your family slowly turns into suspicion.

You talk to people about help and they tell you of another 12 step program support system or of something they know nothing about. You thank them smile and never hear a word they say because you are more concerned with where the family member is right at this very moment and you are wondering what they are doing or if they are even alive.

Young people are not just smoking pot anymore. They are huffing, snorting, smoking drugs that you have never heard of and they don’t plan to give it up. If they get caught, they’re sorry, but they will look you in the eye and tell you they’re sorry. After that they will be even more careful to avoid being caught.

These drugs allow the people on them an amazing level of self-confidence with authoritative people in their lives. They are going to do drugs and with the slack laws, well there is nothing you can do about it.

WRONG. There isn’t anything you can do with your children once they turn 18. If they choose to do drugs after their 18th birthday, they can do just as much as they want to do and you will not be able to stop them and no one will help you control them, because legally, they are no longer under your protection – they are legal adults now. However if you are coping with a drug-addict that is under the age of majority, you can take drastic measures. In many cases you should.

The drugs that are available to kids these days are more dangerous than anything you ever experienced in your younger years. The kids opt for pain killers such as Oxycontin, Percocet, and Loratabs. Then when those highs don’t cut it, they get turned onto meth amphetamine (crystal meth). It is an extremely popular social drug that has devastating effects. No one seems to walk completely away from because the temptation is there each and every day for the rest of their life.

So when you get that phone call in the wee hours of the morning, you hang up the phone and decide right then, do you take action? Remember if you don’t, it will mean you could be giving up someone you love.

By: Jordi Shoman