Lock your cabinets, hide your Percocets, children are stealing prescription drugs.
Sheri Gessner, who works for Hull Services, a registered charitable organization that provides behaviour and mental services for children and families, shared that message at a recent Women Empowering Women meeting last month.
“Monitor your prescriptions,” Gessner told the crowd of approximately 10 to 15 women on March 22.
“There is street value for things we wouldn’t even know there is street value for.”
Working with families dealing with addiction, Gessner admitted she used to be “really judgmental” with a “lack of empathy” for people struggling with drug problems, until she faced her own struggles.
“Everything I thought I knew went out the window,” Gessner told the crowd.
“It’s a family illness. It touches everyone (and) it is really scary being a parent right now.”
In response to the number of opioid related deaths in the province, the Government of Canada announced $6 million to combat the crisis. Prescribed opioids are used to treat moderate to severe pain and include codeine, fentanyl, hydrocodone, methadone, morphine, merperidine, and oxycodone – to name a few.
The speaker urged the attendees to keep count of the prescription pills in the bottles, or to return unused pills to a pharmacy.
According to Stats Canada, in 2012 substance use disorders were highest among youth aged 15 to 24 at 11.9 per cent, with a 2007 study showing 60 per cent of illicit drug users were 15 to 24 years old.
Gessner said parents must discuss drugs with their children as early as Grade 3 or Grade 4.
“Talk to them every day,” Gessner said.
“Everyone thinks, ‘That will never happen to me’ … talk to them about your expectations, say you’ll be disappointed and upset and scared if they do drugs.”
The mother of two, and stepmother to another two, said it is important to get educated, be open, talk about addictions and drug use with children, and most importantly “give them an out.”
Gessner said parents should tell their children if they are at a party where they do not feel comfortable or have ingested drugs or alcohol, that the they can call for a ‘no-questions-asked’ ride home.
“You know your child best, look for a change in habit,” Gessner said.
During the question period, attendees asked when it is too early to intervene and involve an outside agency.
Gessner said it is never too early and that the number of attempts it takes to get clean and stay clean or sober depends on the readiness of the person.
The next speaker emphasized the importance of checking your medicine cabinets, not just to check for youth stealing, but adults as well.
“Monitor your prescriptions,” Dawn Kloster said.
Kloster told the parents to search their children’s room if they are suspicious and to “really search it” saying things that might look normal could be used for drugs, for example an apple bong, that might just look like an apple with holes in it.
“Back in my day there were only three really accessible drugs,” Kloster said.
Now, along with alcohol and cannabis, there are prescription stimulants, opioids, and sedatives along with other illicit street drugs.
Kloster shared her own personal story of addiction with alcohol and how “there was never enough.”
“There are a lot of us out there who are affected by addiction,” Kloster said.
“I had a family member tell me once, if you think you have a problem, then you probably do.”
Growing up watching family members suffer with alcohol abuse, Kloster said she spent her youth drinking excessively when she realized she had a problem more than two decades ago.
“I’ve been sober 22 years – I don’t really share that a lot but I feel it’s important to let people know that life isn’t so bad as a recovering alcoholic,” Kloster said.
After watching her family members gain sobriety, Kloster said she was able to stop drinking with the help of Alcoholics Anonymous and shared a list of resources with attendees at the end of the meeting.
“It’s important people know you can have fun and a good life in recovery,” Kloster said.
For more information on resources in the community, go to the Cochrane Addiction and Mental Health Clinic, located at 60 Grande Blvd or call 403-851-6100.
