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Teens find homemade highs just a click away
Posted 9/29/2006 2:34 PM ET E-mail | Save | Print | Subscribe to stories like this Subscribe to stories like this
By Shabina S. Khatri, Detroit Free Press
Four years ago, curiosity about marijuana brought an Idaho teenager named Nick to a popular online drug encyclopedia.
Now 18 and in a rehabilitation program in Southfield, Mich., Nick said he became obsessed with the website's offerings  particularly the vaults filled with information about hundreds of mind-altering chemicals, herbs and plants.
The site, which the journal Pediatrics reported receives 250,000 clicks daily, also has thousands of posts from users, mostly twentysomethings, about their substance experiences.
"I was so fascinated," said Nick, whose last name is not being published because the drug charges he faced were juvenile charges. The information emboldened him to experiment with many substances, he said.
"The fear, the taboo of using ecstasy and crack  you really start to doubt that fear when someone tells you there's a healthier way. I would never have done a lot of the drugs I did if it wasn't for that website."
An increasing number of teen users are turning to the Web to feed or develop their habits, say counselors, drug abuse prevention experts and those in law enforcement. Experts say it's another danger of unmonitored and unfettered access to the Internet for teens, with the same simple solution  parents keeping a closer eye on what their kids do online.
Over the past decade, the number of websites glorifying drug usage, providing step-by-step recipes for homemade highs and pushing products through questionable online storefronts has increased exponentially. And tech-savvy teens, undetected by their less-informed parents, are flocking to these sites, using them to score drugs, swap stories and further their habits.
One study found only 6% of websites selling prescription drugs require prescriptions, making "these drugs as easy to buy over the Internet as candy," said Bo Deitl, chairman of Beau Dietl and Associates, which did the analysis with the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University.
It's not just access to drugs that's troublesome  misinformation also plays a role.
"To me, that's the bigger danger," said Brian Spitsbergen, director of youth assistance for Growth Works, a Plymouth, Mich.-based agency that helps those with chemical dependency.
"You can find Web pages that tell you how to make ... name it, recipes for methamphetamine to hallucinogens to anything else. It's all over the place. But the recipes may be poison. You find a recipe for meth ... that may be instant death."
To address the problem, the Office of National Drug Control Policy published an open letter to parents last month with tips on monitoring teens' digital activities.
"Technology has created an environment for kids where they can really stay under the surface  right under adults' noses," Spitsbergen said.
Now, he added, finding drug dealers can be as easy as logging onto MySpace.com  and obtaining the drugs as simple as sending a text message.
"Anytime you want drugs, it's a call or a click away," said Nick, who used to go through 3,600 minutes monthly on his cellphone.
Though keeping up with technology may seem daunting, experts advocate simple strategies for parents to stay abreast of teens' activities.
Among them: checking cellphone records, Internet chat buddy lists and Web page view histories.
"The job of parents is to know where their kids are whether it's in the real world or the virtual world," said Jennifer DeVallance, a representative from the Office of National Drug Control Policy. "It's a matter of safety."
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2006- ... rugs_x.htm
Posted 9/29/2006 2:34 PM ET E-mail | Save | Print | Subscribe to stories like this Subscribe to stories like this
By Shabina S. Khatri, Detroit Free Press
Four years ago, curiosity about marijuana brought an Idaho teenager named Nick to a popular online drug encyclopedia.
Now 18 and in a rehabilitation program in Southfield, Mich., Nick said he became obsessed with the website's offerings  particularly the vaults filled with information about hundreds of mind-altering chemicals, herbs and plants.
The site, which the journal Pediatrics reported receives 250,000 clicks daily, also has thousands of posts from users, mostly twentysomethings, about their substance experiences.
"I was so fascinated," said Nick, whose last name is not being published because the drug charges he faced were juvenile charges. The information emboldened him to experiment with many substances, he said.
"The fear, the taboo of using ecstasy and crack  you really start to doubt that fear when someone tells you there's a healthier way. I would never have done a lot of the drugs I did if it wasn't for that website."
An increasing number of teen users are turning to the Web to feed or develop their habits, say counselors, drug abuse prevention experts and those in law enforcement. Experts say it's another danger of unmonitored and unfettered access to the Internet for teens, with the same simple solution  parents keeping a closer eye on what their kids do online.
Over the past decade, the number of websites glorifying drug usage, providing step-by-step recipes for homemade highs and pushing products through questionable online storefronts has increased exponentially. And tech-savvy teens, undetected by their less-informed parents, are flocking to these sites, using them to score drugs, swap stories and further their habits.
One study found only 6% of websites selling prescription drugs require prescriptions, making "these drugs as easy to buy over the Internet as candy," said Bo Deitl, chairman of Beau Dietl and Associates, which did the analysis with the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University.
It's not just access to drugs that's troublesome  misinformation also plays a role.
"To me, that's the bigger danger," said Brian Spitsbergen, director of youth assistance for Growth Works, a Plymouth, Mich.-based agency that helps those with chemical dependency.
"You can find Web pages that tell you how to make ... name it, recipes for methamphetamine to hallucinogens to anything else. It's all over the place. But the recipes may be poison. You find a recipe for meth ... that may be instant death."
To address the problem, the Office of National Drug Control Policy published an open letter to parents last month with tips on monitoring teens' digital activities.
"Technology has created an environment for kids where they can really stay under the surface  right under adults' noses," Spitsbergen said.
Now, he added, finding drug dealers can be as easy as logging onto MySpace.com  and obtaining the drugs as simple as sending a text message.
"Anytime you want drugs, it's a call or a click away," said Nick, who used to go through 3,600 minutes monthly on his cellphone.
Though keeping up with technology may seem daunting, experts advocate simple strategies for parents to stay abreast of teens' activities.
Among them: checking cellphone records, Internet chat buddy lists and Web page view histories.
"The job of parents is to know where their kids are whether it's in the real world or the virtual world," said Jennifer DeVallance, a representative from the Office of National Drug Control Policy. "It's a matter of safety."
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2006- ... rugs_x.htm
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