Drug Fast Facts

I have four kids spread across grade school, middle school, and high school right now (back in school from winter vacation today!) and all of their schools have been increasing security and cracking down on forbidden substances. Drugs are among the forbidden substances, of course. There are random searches for illicit materials, which has piqued interest in all-things-forbidden. I've been fielding questions about drugs. What do various drugs look like? Why do people take them? Why would you not want to take them? I have a drug photo gallery to help answer the first question. The other two questions are a bit more challenging. I really dislike when people answer "peer pressure" and "because it is illegal" in response to queries about why people take drugs and why they shouldn't. Both of those answers are partly true, but not exactly informative. I've been making up some drug fact sheets that answer the types of questions my kids ask. Of course, I also show them Faces of Meth and discuss how the effects of making tea from the coca plant aren't comparable to the effects of taking purified cocaine and how most of the negative effects from using marjuana are associated with smoking. So... if you're looking for 'drugs are evil, drugs are bad' you probably won't find it, but if you want concrete reasons why it's not a good idea to use drugs, I can help you.

• anabolic steroids
• cocaine
• crack cocaine
• crystal meth
• marijuana

As you can see, I still have a lot of ground to cover. I'm not adding drug facts in any particular order, so if you have a drug you'd like to see covered, please feel free to let me know.