...sigh. I gather that there are folks here of all ages - I wonder if there are any of you who have had experience, 1st hand or otherwise, with the "cold-pills" teens take to get high.
Today was supposed to be my day off. I got a call at 8am asking if I could come in because my co-worker's 15 year old daughter had been in a car wreck. She had stolen mom's car and wrecked it by driving it into someone's home. It was 4am and she had her 12 year old step-sister and another kid in the car. The kids were high on booze and "cold-pills". The 15 year-old had taken 24 of them that she had stolen from the local pharmacy.
Thank God - no one was hurt. (Last summer, in a similar incident, a 12 year old drove into a woman's living room and killed her as she watched TV, he was tried as an adult for vehicular homicide, and found guilty).
Last night was the third episode, the first occurred at school (after which she was permanently expelled from the county schools, she was to be sent to "alternative school"), the second occurred a couple of weeks ago, and last night was the grand finale. She's now in juvie and will go before a judge Monday morning, third time for that, too.
My co-worker is nearly old enough to be my daughter, and her daughter is a year younger than my grandson. Fortunately, my grandson is a great student and has never been in one lick of trouble, probably because his friends always hang out over here, and there is always someone keeping a very close eye on the lot of them. He just got his driver's license last week and pretty soon I guess he'll be venturing away from the homeplace (gulp). My grandson lives with his dad, who neither drinks nor smokes. He was raised to be very fitness concious and does not eat beef, pork or fowl either. I don't know what he'll do once he goes away to college, stay with what he's been taught or go hog wild.
As you can well imagine, this child's actions have caused quite a ruckus at work. Later on today, we learned that the daughter had been stealing her mom's car during the wee hours and going to the beach and partying and doing drugs with some older guys. All the keys to the marina are on the same set of keys as the car keys. Not only that, but my co-worker has no wheels, and it's doubtful that her insurance will cover the loss of her car considering the circumstances.
Well anyway - any thoughts you have on this situation would be appreciated, especially with regard to how you think the best way is to keep teens clean to start with.