Teenage Drug Use: Don’t Be Afraid, Be Informed

The news media have a habit of finding obscure stories about substance use, in particular about teenagers using substances in unusual and frightening ways. They usually report the problem as “the latest trend” or “the newest epidemic”. I’ve always warned people to be very suspicious when they hear about the latest craze in teenage drug use. Don’t take anything at face value. Do your own research and be informed.

Some of the most blatant examples are the vodka-soaked tampon and the terrifying stories of the supposed flesh-eating Krokodil drug. The tampon story was cleverly and humorously debunked by an article of the Huffington Post where a reporter actually attempted the act. After reading her account, you must conclude the story has been blown way out of proportion. Did that stop the local news from reporting on it? Of course it didn’t. They even include medical and law enforcement “experts” in order really scare parents.

The Krokodil story is a little more complicated. The drug itself is actually called desomorphine, a derivative of morphine which is apparently a pretty powerful opiate (related to heroin). Opiate abuse (including heroin) is one of the fastest growing problems in Oklahoma…but why would anyone use a drug that rots their flesh?

Well, it seems that the drug desomorphine actually doesn’t rot your flesh. The problem comes from the impurities that result from the clandestine manufacture of the substance. If there’s one thing we know about in Oklahoma, it’s the clandestine manufacturing of drugs! But this is where it gets interesting.

Krokodil is manufactured from codeine. From what I can tell, the process of converting codeine into desomorphine is not that much different than the manufacture of methamphetamine. So why shouldn’t we worry about this in the United States? Why hasn’t this new trend taken Oklahoma by storm? It hasn’t because you can’t just run to the store and by codeine, the required precursor.

Apparently Russia sells codeine over the counter. Addicts can go to their local store and buy what they need to turn codeine into the much more powerful desomorphine. Of course these aren’t chemists and the labs they’re using are not sterile. They invariably end up with impurities and toxins in the end product. So what’s the result? A quick Google search will yield an abundance of pictures of horrible abscesses and staph infections that are prime material for the evening news “scare the hell out of the parents segment”.

If all these stories did were scare parents and generate ratings, I wouldn’t be as upset. What does concern me is when they take obscure problems and publicize them in ways that pique the interest of curious teenagers. My greatest concern is that they distract parents, teachers and others from the most likely problems that need our undivided attention.

Alcohol abuse is still the number one problem in Oklahoma among both teens and adults. Cannabis continues to dull the minds and spirits of a large segment of our population. Prescription opiates are still responsible for more overdose deaths than any other substance.

I certainly don’t want to become one of the “scare the hell out of the parents crowd” but  I’m starting see more and more evidence of widespread abuse of synthetic drugs commonly called K2 or Spice. While I don’t want to publicize an obscure problem, I’m starting to think this is bigger than we may realize.

In an effort to not blow the problem out of proportion, I’ll do more research before posting additional information, probably later this spring. What I can tell you is that we have started drug testing for the most common variations of these drugs and found the use more widespread than we previously believed. It seems to be pretty popular, especially among those who are routinely being tested for other illicit drugs.

I’ve seen anecdotal evidence of serious physical and psychological problems from use. I’ve seen a few reach a level of addiction I would normally expect with methamphetamine or crack cocaine.  Because most schools and other agencies aren’t testing for it, we really don’t know how big the problem is. However, a friend of mine says her teenage son told her “it would be easier to tell you who isn’t doing it than to tell you who is”.