For many people who suffer addictions, the transition into harder Drugs creeps up on them. They may have principles when they first begin to party. However, these moral principles dissolve over time as they become stupider from the drugs and start to respect drug pushers and older drug friends. The use of prescription pills often follows the exposure to alcohol and marijuana in a party scene environment. This is the first gateway to starting hard drugs like opioids for many. Taking grandma’s oxycodone or Percocets doesn’t seem all that risky compared to purchasing black tar heroin from a back-alley pusher in the ghetto.
When we study drug culture, we see how the poison is covered in illusions of safety and accountability that are only paper thin. Although the big pharmaceutical companies are liable for the purity of their products and ensuring consistent quality, the obligations pretty much end there. When it comes to dosing (titration), the doctors have wide discretion of what is called professional medical judgment to diagnose and treat any ailment. What happens when the pill hits the streets or winds up in the hands of non-patients living in the same household is another story altogether.
Some manufacturers have attempted to obstruct users from shooting up and snorting prescription opioids by coating them in impregnable rubber or using other formulations. The first wave of crush-proof polymer coatings were too easy to remove. Users simply sucked on the pills for a minute to dissolve the coating and crushed the preparation as usual. The new formulation released in 2010 makes it more difficult to crush the internal compound into an injectable or snortable concentrate. Although this lowered the black-market value of the pills, processes using microwaves and freezers still provide some tools to make the pills abusable.
Of course, pills are only one method of making naive youth comfortable with Harder Drugs. Speed, meth, cocaine, or LSD often becomes a necessity when users are too burnt out on marijuana to function. Although alcoholics have an advantage in avoiding the pull of addiction to hard drugs, the party scene, in general. leads to an abundance of opportunities for experimentation. Alcoholics may use drugs situationally but are mainly focused on enjoying the bar scene and the social opportunities without the expense of drugs.
Because marijuana is sometimes laced with ecstasy, heroin, opium, PCP, or cocaine, this can cross users over the edge. When users take hard drugs like cocaine, they start to lose their sense of humor that may have made the cannabis use fun. Cocaine can permanently change their demeanor and make them more serious. Cocaine is particularly dangerous when combined with alcohol because it produces the toxic compound called cocaethylene. Cocaethylene is about 30-percent more toxic than cocaine alone. It also takes longer for the body to metabolize it, increasing the risk for fatal side-effects.
This is why it is important to find treatment for their teenagers before they become addicted to hard drugs. Just because you think that marijuana is safe, doesn’t mean that they will use only this drug forever. To end an addiction to drugs or for assistance stopping substance abuse before it turns into a habit, contact us today for rehab treatment in Newport Beach.
