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“Not My Kid” Isn’t an Answer

We hear it from parents all the time – "not my kid." Our answer: Even if your teens don't have an issue with over-the-counter cough medicine abuse, they live in a world where they are confronted with it daily. Roughly 33 percent of American high school teens know someone who has abused cough medicine containing dextromethorphan, or DXM.

The Issue is Increasingly Prevalent in Teen Culture

DXM abuse is becoming increasingly present in teen culture. There are hundreds of web sites and online communities promoting DXM abuse with instructions on how much medicine it takes for different types of highs.

Don't Wait to Address the Issue

So, even if you think your teens don't have an issue, don't wait to talk to them about the real risks. In order for teens to take cough medicine abuse seriously, they need to know that their parents do not approve of any sort of substance abuse behavior.

A Teen's Brain

Even the brightest kid in the world does not have the same ability as an adult to assess risk and consequence. That’s because the part of a teen’s brain that processes risk, the frontal cortex, doesn't finish developing until a child is well into his mid-twenties. We see the unsafe or silly choices kids make at school sometimes and can attest to this!To learn more about the realities of cough medicine abuse, take a look at this short public service announcement from the Five Moms.

(Source: Partnership Attitude Tracking Study (PATS) 2009)

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