Drug Awareness

What's happening?

Our communities are saturated with drugs and today's youth have unprecedented levels of access to drugs in very high concentrations.   Unfortunately, for the developing, adolescent mind, drugs are detrimental to healthy development and can have a life long impact.  

Some teens are purchasing what they think are Adderall, Percocet, Oxycodone and Xanax pills via social media; what they’re really getting are fake pills made from the cheap, deadly and more potent synthetic drug known as fentanyl. Fentanyl has flooded into our communities in recent years.  The drug is odorless, tasteless and colorless. It is up to 50 times more potent than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine.  The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) estimates that 6 in 10 fake pills contain a potentially lethal dose of fentanyl. 

To be clear, these pills are not pharmaceutical-grade medications.  Most of the time, fentanyl is coming across the border from Mexican cartels in the form of powder. It’s then pressed into counterfeit pills which look exactly like tablets manufactured by legitimate pharmaceutical companies. Unfortunately, there's no quality control.  Pills in the same batch can have wildly varying levels of fentanyl. The amount of fentanyl that it takes to overdose and die is equivalent to two grains of sand!  Fentanyl is also found as a filler in numerous other street drugs like cocaine, heroin and MDMA (Ecstasy/Molly).

Law enforcement investigators point to advertisements on social media platforms like Snapchat and TikTok as examples that drug dealers are targeting teens.  Officials say that young people find pills especially appealing because they’re cheap, more socially acceptable than meth or heroin and don’t have a tell-tale smell like alcohol or marijuana.  In general, teens see pills as being “safe.” Recent polls indicate that more than two-thirds of teens have never heard about fentanyl and its life threatening dangers.

If you’re a parent or guardian and are thinking to yourself, “my kid isn’t a drug addict,” know that most teens who use pills do not fit the dated notion of a drug user.  Often, teens are seeking out what they think are real pharmaceutical pills to deal with anxiety or other mental health struggles.  Others are looking to experiment or have “some fun,” but the days of harmless experimentation are over when one pill can kill.

MSD believes strongly that when we equip our students with knowledge and then repeat that information regularly, they're more likely to make responsible decisions.  Parents are an integral component and the preferred sender in helping to educate students.  Please partner with us in this regard.  Any lessons learned at school benefit from being reinforced at home.

What can parents/guardians do?

- Talk to your kids

- Know where they spend time

- Know who they are hanging out with 

- Emphasize the life threatening importance of not taking any pills that you are not 100% certain of where they came from

- Reinforce One Pill Can Kill; it truly only takes one time

- Help build awareness of the dangers of drug use