Fentanyl overdoses and drug use at school are issues parents may want to talk about with their kids as they head back to school — but what are the best ways to broach the subject?
“You’re starting middle school for the first time, or high school for the first time, there can be pressures to make friends and fit in that are a little bit more heightened than normally,” said Ginny Atwood, the co-founder of the Chris Atwood Foundation.
She said talks with your child can begin extremely early, even when they are a toddler.
“You maybe give your kid a Flintstones vitamin, and then we talk about medications and vitamins and that it’s only OK to take things that your parents give you,” Atwood told WTOP.
The conversations about drugs and overdoses should be consistent and ongoing, asking kids what they’re seeing in their friend groups and making sure that they know what your values are as a family. She also suggests laying down very clear rules and consequences.
Atwood, however, warns parents away from fear-mongering.
“We want to share accurate, fact-based information, because if we are sharing the whole ‘Reefer Madness,’ where if you smoke a joint, you’re going to go out and kill somebody — kids find out that a lot of this fear-based information isn’t accurate, and then we lose credibility with them,” she said.
You should strive for your kids to be able to come to you if they have a problem with drugs, but a plan B option is always advised. If they don’t feel like opening up to you, another family member or friend may be effective.
“When my brother was struggling, actually, he we tried to get him to admit it a million times, and he would never admit it to our parents, but he did admit it to a family friend,” said Atwood, whose brother Chris died of an accidental overdose at 21.
It also doesn’t hurt to help provide excuses for your child for if they ever are feeling peer pressure.
“’I can’t, my mom drug tests me, you know, and if I use this, everybody’s gonna get in trouble,'” Atwood said, providing an example excuse.
If parents think their straight-A student wouldn’t even think about it — they may want to think again.
“Especially if kids are really high achieving and seem to be doing really well, [they] can feel a lot of pressure, and sometimes it’s those pressures that can cause people to turn to substances to self medicate,” Atwood said.
The problem of overdose deaths continues in the D.C. region, with many kids dying from fentanyl overdoses, some while on school property.
“It’s never safe, but it was a lot safer, and now in the rise of fentanyl, it’s really a game of Russian Roulette. Any single time could be the time that takes your life, which is scary,” Atwood said.
“We are seeing youth overdoses rise a lot,” she said. “They have gone up about 500% in recent years in the Hispanic population, and they’re rising in all the other populations significantly as well.”
Overall, overdoses in D.C. alone went up 12% last year while nationwide deaths linked to overdoses leveled off last year.
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