What to do if your youngster is using drugs and does not see any harm in it
This can be very difficlut to cope with. Despite your best efforts your youngster starts to use drugs. They enjoy it and if you tell them not to they ignore you. They think you know next to nothing about drugs and they may be right. It is hard work being a parent. It can be really stressful just having a young person growing up beside you in your home. They see the world through their eyes not yours, whatever you do or say. Sometimes even when they are completely wrong they have to learn for themselves and make their own mistakes. There is no way they are going to do something - or not do something - just on your say so.
If they literally pass out and you cannot rouse them, you must put them into the recovery position and call an ambulance. Tel: 999. While waiting for it to arrive, monitor their breathing. Use mouth to mouth resuscitation if uncertain, but whatever you do, keep an air supply going.
Leave discussion about the rights and wrongs of the situation until the following day. You will be calmer and they will be sober. You will just be wasting your time trying to have a rational discussion with someone who is stoned or drunk.
The day after is the time to discuss rules for living together. You have the right not to have your home regularly disrupted by drunken or stoned behaviour. Fortunately, it is only a small minority of young people who will use frequently in this way.
It can be terribly frustrating to have to sit on the sidelines whilst someone you love is putting themselves at risk - deliberately, it seems. Yet, rf we are honest, weren't we just like that when we were younger? Most of us have engaged in life threatening or at least health compromising behaviours at some point in our lives.
Youngsters are in such a hurry to consume the world and all its pleasures that they have no time to take care of themselves the way we want them to.
Ask them to describe to what it is they are getting out of their drug use. Make it clear to them that you want to try to understand it from their point of view.
You will need to set clear rules if the durgs are being used in your home. For example, you could be liable under the Misuse of Drugs (Jersey) Law if you
permit or tolerate the smoking of cannabis in your home.
Depending on the drugs your youngster is using and their methods of use, you might want to check out if they are using in the least harmful way possible. A harm reduction approach is the one most often used by drug agencies. They will work with a client to identify the most serious risks and make sure that the client knows how to reduce them.
It should also be stressed that in most cases the use of drugs will be recreational. By far the largest numbers of drug users today are those using drugs like alcohol, cannabis, LSD, amphetamines and ecstasy on nights out, at parties, in clubs and so on. Most of these users will take good care of each other and themselves and come to no immediate harm. This is not to say that long term damage may not result but this tends to occur with repeated and heavy use.
Finally, don't close the door on further discussion with your youngster even if you cannot see eye to eye with them. Leave them with the understanding that you will always be ready to talk to them again. One of the big problems with drug use is that it can undermine communication between young people and their parents. Points of view are often different, but that doesn't mean that you cannot keep talking.
Source: A Parent's Guide to Drugs, Jersey Health Promotion Department
