Should You Report Kids Who Are Taking Drugs or Drinking?

                                                                                         

Parents are sometimes reluctant to report their kids’ friends when they’re drinking or taking drugs. But they could be saving their lives, and the lives of their own kids.

Parents often have questions about how to handle the fact that young adult or teenage friends of their own kids are drinking or taking drugs. They don’t want to get the kids in trouble, and they don’t want to upset their own kids, but, on the other hand, they need to protect their own kids from the negative influence. What is the correct thing to do?

It’s not hard to make the decision when you look at the potential consequences. How different would the following facts be had someone taken action so drinkers could get help in alcohol rehab before things went too far?

1. Almost 10% of college students get drunk at least 10 times a month.

2. 44% of students who attend college always binge drink when they drink at all.

3. According to a recent study, the University of California Medical Center at Davis, California, saw an increase of 30% in kids aged 12 to 17 coming into the emergency room to be treated for injuries that occurred as a result of binge drinking. And blood alcohol levels were higher than in the past.

4. Binge drinking related emergency room visits in other areas were even higher, according to the Drug Abuse Warning Network, part of the federal Health Department of Health and Human Services. For kids aged 13 to 19, Denver’s ER visits increased by 50%, Phoenix by 49%, New York was at 35%, and, worst of all, was San Diego with an increase of 139%.

5. Younger drinkers, under 19 years of age, are more likely to drive after drinking, ride with a driver who’s drinking or drunk, and need medical attention for injuries that occurred after drinking.

6. About one-third of all traffic accident deaths involve alcohol. The highest percentage of those fatalities were young adults aged 21 to 24.

7. There is one alcohol-impaired vehicle crash every 39 minutes.

While getting someone into trouble with their parents, school authorities, and so on, may not be pleasant, the alternative may well be having your son or daughter, or their friends, added to the statistics above. Alcohol addiction and abuse can be successfully treated at an addiction treatment center. But if no one stands up to say there’s a problem, there’s little chance of anything being done.

About the author:
Gloria MacTaggart is a freelance writer that contributes articles on health.

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