I asked my classes if there was anyone present who had never purchased something online--not a single student who hadn't. Shopping online has become routine. That shopping online applies to almost every age group, perhaps excepting toddlers and infants. And the online shopping experience is providing yet another area where parents and adults need to be vigilant in monitoring what their children are doing online. In fact, adults need to be taking more care as well.
The Jewish World Review had a rather frightening article up about dangerous synthetic drugs that are available online. http://jewishworldreview.com/0911/chemical_roulette.php3 Some of those mentioned in the article were added to other consumer products such as bath salts. In over 50% of the products mentioned the ingredients list was not given or the synthetic drugs were purposefully left off of the list. The amount of the drugs in the products varies from about 25% to 100%, many at toxic levels.
Don't kid yourself by saying the DEA will take care of this problem. From the article: "U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) spokesman Rusty Payne said it is a felony to buy 4-Meo-PCP and possibly some of the other substances. But he said it is "ridiculous" to expect the federal government to stop trafficking of all synthetic drugs.
"There are thousands and thousands of websites who market these products, and it is extremely difficult to police and enforce every single one of them," Payne said."
Online shopping is indeed a convenience, but let's not close our eyes to the fact that it can be darn dangerous as well. Yet something else to add to the job of parenting.
14 comments:
I don't understand this post. You're saying parents need to monitor their children's online purchases because they may be buying synthetic drugs?
I just don't see the connection to online shopping let alone "online" anything. How about just "make sure your kids aren't doing drugs"?
I have never in my life heard of a person who wanted drugs having any difficulty in getting it. No idea if drug availability online makes it any easier, but this isn't exactly a new problem (kids using drugs). The article sounds alarmist and misses the real issue of drug use.
just so you realize how pervasive this is...my granddaughter was playing with my smartphone, pushing buttons and generally having a great time.
I took it back from her to see that I had gotten a confirmation email from amazon for the book she had "1-clicked" and bought,
at the ripe old age of 20 months (I had to cancel the transaction)
so I wouldn't even make an exception for toddlers :-)
JS:
drug abuse is up in the US. it now outnumbers automobile deaths. on some states it is the leading cause of preventable deaths. (this is due in large part to abuse of legal drugs.)
no one suggests that drug abuse is a new phenomenon, but do you seriously think that the internet doesn't make it easier to obtain drugs?
DEB:
phones need to be monitored as much as home computers. my son plays with my phone a lot, including youtube. yesterday i noticed that if you click on the most viewed button for mobile youtube half of the results on the first page are porn. (this is most viewed by all users, not the user of the phone)
Abba is right JS. The Internet makes it lots easier to buy drugs and to try them for the first time. Sure drugs are available on the street. But local, state and federal law enforcement is pretty organized in looking for the drug sellers and buyers. No, all the dealers and suppliers don't get caught, but enough do that it keeps the other ones nervous. According to that quote by the DEA spokesman they are pretty much not doing anything about monitoring or going after drug sellers online.
Should be obvious that parents should be making sure that their kids aren't doing drugs. But to do that parents also have to know that drugs aren't just sold by scumbags on the streets but they have taken to the Internet
Let's get a little perspective here. The new total for drug abuse deaths is around 37,500. That's about .01% of the US population. About 2.4 million die in the US every year. This is only 1.56% of all deaths. But, more importantly perhaps, the vast majority of that 37,500 number is actually from prescription drug abuse, not the street drugs people would think such as cocaine or heroine.
As a comparison, over 440,000 people die each year from tobacco related illnesses. Over 75,000 die each year from alcohol related illnesses and injuries. Both of these substances are completely legal. (Source is CDC)
It's a classic case of overreacting to a phenomenon because it is scary or horrific when far more common risks are given short shrift. A common example is a fear of dying in an airplane crash when you're far more likely to die in a car crash, yet people have a fear of flying, but not a fear of driving.
Even more to the point, where were the dire warnings about being a safe driver before drugs abuse overtook car accidents?
Again, the issue is drug abuse. Perhaps more particularly, the issue is abusing prescription drugs. The "buying drugs online" thing is a real red herring that masks the overarching issue. It's no different than the news reports that come out every once in a while about some exotic drug no one has ever heard of but 1 person died and the news reporters shout out warnings like "Is your child using Loco Lizard? If so, he could already be dead. News at 11."
Some common sense and actual level-headed education on these issues would go a long way.
"Sure drugs are available on the street. But local, state and federal law enforcement is pretty organized in looking for the drug sellers and buyers. No, all the dealers and suppliers don't get caught, but enough do that it keeps the other ones nervous. According to that quote by the DEA spokesman they are pretty much not doing anything about monitoring or going after drug sellers online."
I had to respond to this. Maybe your neighborhood is "drugs free" (which I doubt), but the local police and drug enforcement agents don't keep drugs off the streets. Drugs are more available than they ever have been (yes, more than the 60's and 70's). Maybe law-abiding citizens who if they had to go out and get drugs would first think to look in the yellow pages under "drug dealer" think the cops are keeping drug dealers at bay, but it's simply not the case. The fact that some DEA guy said they don't monitor the internet is just laughable, they don't monitor the streets either. No one who wants drugs has any difficulty in getting it. No one is turning to the internet to buy drugs because the streets are swarming with DEA agents.
The vast majority of people getting arrested are just casual users and junkies, not the dealers. Further, the vast majority of those arrested are just marijuana users (no, I have never done drugs).
The culture and motivation behind the "war on drugs" is completely moronic and is focused on the wrong things (e.g., marijuana use as opposed to prescription drug abuse, for example).
Look at what is happening in Mexico. It is nearly entirely due to US drug policy. It's amazing the Mexican government has been as reticent as they are on this issue. They practically have a civil war going on in parts of the country all due to our drug policy.
But regardless, over 500,000 deaths a year due to tobacco and alcohol, both of which are legal. Marijuana has never killed a single person to the best of my knowledge. Prescription drug abuse kills more people than those who die from cocaine and heroine combined, yet next to no regulations on prescription drugs to prevent their illegal sale and misuse.
JS,
Marijuana's safety is somewhat overstated. While overdosing on marijuana is nearly impossible, and relatively unheard of, driving under the influence is a serious risk. Further, the combination of marijuana and alcohol is a serious risk.
Marijuana is a nausea suppressant, your body's defense against alchohol poisoning is vomiting. The combination is deadly, but would be attributed as an alcohol death, from the alcohol poisoning, NOT from marijuana, which caused the death by suppressing nausea.
Our drug war is asinine, but marijuana is NOT harmless. Also, street drugs are often "cut" with cheaper and potentially toxic substances. Granted, those deaths are a function of the toxin, not marijuana, but street marijuana is not perfectly safe.
I didn't mean to imply that marijuana is safe. Only that our drug policy is messed up in the sense that substances that cause many tens of thousands of deaths annually are legal (but regulated) while marijuana is illegal.
Also, the warnings from DEA agents and the like about impure drugs (such as in the article about purchasing drugs online) is hypocritical to my ears. The reason the drugs are impure, contain toxins, have different concentrations of the "active" ingredient, etc. is because it's an illegal industry and not subject to any controls or regulations. You'd have the same problems with alcohol and tobacco if those weren't regulated - cigarettes would have all sorts of toxins from pesticides on the tobacco and increased nicotine, alcoholic beverages wouldn't have any controls on percentage of alcohol, etc. It's dishonest to say the drugs are dangerous in and of themselves when in reality a lot of their danger comes from the fact that they're illegal and not regulated. It's also not much different than FDA regulated drugs and non-regulated health supplements and vitamins which contain God knows what.
JS,
That's true, but in their defense, that's the separation of powers. The DEA, as an executive branch, can warn people of the dangers, but can't change the law. The DEA can't, even if they wanted to give up their police powers over marijuana, legalize and regulate it.
They can only warn of the dangers in the world that is, not the dangers in the world that might be.
JS:
"Let's get a little perspective here. The new total for drug abuse deaths is around 37,500. That's about .01% of the US population. About 2.4 million die in the US every year. This is only 1.56% of all deaths . . ."
do you think that fatalaties is the only measure of drug abuse sequelae?
the point of this statistic is not to show that drug abuse deaths per se is now an epidemic compared to other sources of death, but that drug abuse is increasing, which is reflected in the increase of deaths.
"But, more importantly perhaps, the vast majority of that 37,500 number is actually from prescription drug abuse"
no kidding. and the internet is a source for many to get unecessary presription drugs for abuse. (that wasn't the point of this article, but it represents just a small story of the larger problem with internet drug sales)
"next to no regulations on prescription drugs to prevent their illegal sale and misuse"
that is patently false even with the very imperfect system we now have (and that system is slowly changing for the better. btw, al's state is the worst offender of prescription drug abuse.)
also understand that there is a big ethical issue with making presription drug more difficult to obtain because there is fine but very blury line between preventing drug diversion and making sure patients get the medications they need.
Not saying that prescription drug abuse doesn't happen because it does. Same for over the counter drug abuse. Some of it is willfull, with people knowing they shouldn't take more of the drug or take it mixed with other substances. Some of it is just plain people being stupid and not reading or listening. All those drugs come with warnings printed on the label of the package and/or also in printed material inside the package. Most people throw away the material and the outside box without ever reading any of it. There are new warnings now with ibuprofen and it says it on the box. How many people even notice that warning or read it. After all how dangerous could it be to take a couple of pills?
Look at the elderly with vision problems who may not be reading all the instructions carefully. And for sure let's add that there are lots of people in this country who aren't English speakers or are poor speakers and readers and they don't read the instructions because they really can't.
Abba's,
My point is that articles (and blog posts) like this are just alarmist and not really helpful. Obviously the number of deaths is not the only metric to a problem, but the same peripheral affects for drugs also exist for alcohol and tobacco. The only difference perhaps is the wake of violence that drugs creates purely because of its illegality. But, there are tons of people suffering from cancers, alcoholism, drunk driving deaths, etc. So, why focus on the far smaller problem of drug abuse (and the even smaller problem of those buying drugs online) when there are so many larger fish to fry? To answer my own question, it's because this is "interesting" and writing about lung cancer and liver disease is boring.
Further, the article doesn't even deal with the real issue of prescription drug abuse. It focuses on stuff like the made up drug and news report I posted earlier ("Is your child using Loco Lizard? If so, he could already be dead. News at 11."). Who has ever heard of 4-Meo-PCP? I mean, seriously. How many people even USE regular PCP? 122,000 people admitted to using it once in the past year. Compare that to over 16 million who admitted the same for prescription drugs. So why are we talking about something no one has ever heard of like 4-Meo-PCP and other rare substances instead of Vicodin, Oxycontin, Ritalin, etc.? Again, shock effect.
Drug abuse is a serious problem, but 1) it needs to be viewed in perspective of other substances that are legal and cause much larger problems, 2) it needs to be realized many drug-related problems exist solely because of its illegality, and 3) we need to focus on what is causing the most damage within the broad spectrum of "drug abuse".
As for the controls that exist for ensuring prescription drugs don't go "missing" it's woefully inadequate.
"So, why focus on the far smaller problem of drug abuse (and the even smaller problem of those buying drugs online) when there are so many larger fish to fry?"
i read the article quickly, but iirc the article wasn't arguing that this is the biggest problem out there. it was simply informing regarding one particular problem. just because its not the biggest problem doesn't make it irrelevant or alarmist. simply something parents should be aware of.
"As for the controls that exist for ensuring prescription drugs don't go "missing" it's woefully inadequate."
please elaborate.
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