Skittles Party By Teens Is Not What It Seems
A Skittles party could take the form of a home filled with teenagers where everyone brings all the prescription medications they have on hand and pool them. Then anyone at the party who wants to abuse a pill just dips in and grabs whatever they want.
This practice could be life-threatening but with a deceptive name like a Skittles Party, it could be discussed right in front of a parent without them realizing anything was wrong.
Anyone who knows what Skittles are knows why this term came into use. Skittles are small, round candies that come in an assortment of colors and flavors. There’s a similarity between a bowl of Skittles and a bowl of prescription pills.
It is easy to understand why teens might choose to abuse prescription drugs. Their parents take them, they are given these drugs themselves, they are often available in the home or in the homes they visit. Abusing these drugs may seem like just a small step away from the drugs legitimate use.
But that is because teens do not understand that addiction and death can follow a Skittles party. The bowls at one of these parties may contain any or all of the following:
- Xanax
- Valium
- Prozac
- Oxycontin
- Vicodin
- Lortab
- Ritalin
- Adderall
- Concerta
- Percocet
- Percodan
- Carisoprodol
Any of these drugs can become addictive. More important is that when a number of these drugs are taken together, they can create a complex medical situation that is difficult to untangle in the emergency room.
According to the European Monitoring Committee for Drugs and Drug Addiction, mixing pharmaceutical drugs can greatly increase the risk of adverse health effects. These effects can be short-term, as in a number of drugs working together to suppress respiration, or they can be long-term, as when these drugs combine to have a slowly-building toxic effect on the liver, kidneys, nervous or cardiovascular systems. Prescription drugs can be mixed with each other, with cannabis (marijuana) or alcohol. It’s very common for teens and young adults to mix the use of alcohol with the use of many other drugs.
Minimizing Drug Use At Home Sets A Better Example For Teens
When a family doesn’t have to sit down and explain why it is all right for dad to take several prescriptions, but the teen must not, it is easier to create a convincing argument. Avoiding prescriptions can be as easy as asking one’s doctor if there are other alternatives to taking a pill he or she is prescribing. A lifestyle change, dietary change or other modification might eliminate the need for a particular drug, as long as the doctor approves it. In this situation, it becomes much easier to explain to a teen or young adult that they should not abuse a prescription pill at a party.
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