This is the fourth in a series of blogs looking at the problem of prescription medications and focusing on parents’ either denial of the problem or naiveté at how dangerous it really is.
Are parents oblivious to the fact that using prescription medications not prescribed is the same as using any other illicit drug? I do not think so. As reported in www.hispanicallyspeakingnews.com.
As a counselor for both in-class and online drug classes I know that parents are aware of the dangers. There is something deeper psychologically involved. I have yet to see any official studies, but I think there is a combination of denial and more likely a hope that these prescription meds will not become a long-term addiction. They engage this attitude part in hope and part in lack of true information about how addictive and dangerous these substances are.
In one survey, 16% of parents also said they think prescription drugs are less dangerous than street drugs.
Perhaps this explains another survey finding: While about four in five teens said they had discussed both alcohol and marijuana use with their parents and almost one-third said they had talked with them about crack/cocaine, only between 14% and 16% said that the topic of painkiller/prescription drug abuse had ever come up.