Man, being a junior high student is getting weird these days.

January 9, 2002 10:28 AM

Man, being a junior high student is getting weird these days. Whatever happened to just sharing a joint or a 40? Was that so bad? Seriously though, some say we are over medicating our youth, incidents like this, odd though they may be, have me thinking they may be right.
posted by jonmc (20 comments total)

This doesn't seem so surprising, or new, to me. I rememeber sharing pills in junior high school and high school. I also remember that there was a huge black market for ritalin, we would crush it up a snort it. I think everyone was on it except for the kids who had prescriptions. I graduated from high school in 1991, so, this sort of thing is old hat, imo. Whatever you put kids on, Ritalin, Xanex, what have you, if it gives them even the slightest buzz, they're going to share it.

But I agree that we're overmedicating kids. And I proably never would have tried cocaine had it not been for ritalin.
posted by emptyage at 10:53 AM on January 9, 2002

Sounds like the girl was just practicing for a future career as a school nurse.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 10:59 AM on January 9, 2002

emptyage - I was a ritalin kid too, way back in my 70's childhood although I was about 7 years old so nobody asked me for any. I agree though that my Ritalin use as a child was definitely connected to my later "pharmecutical experimentation."

The sort of oddity I found interesting about this story is that when I was 13, we would pass around the aforementioned weed and malt liquor like most pre-pubes, but that was for party purposes and was, for lack of a better word communal. Pills, especially a sedative, just didn't seem like all that much mun to consume to us.
posted by jonmc at 11:02 AM on January 9, 2002

I'm not sure I see the connection between this incident and "overmedicating." A child who legitimately needs a drug can pass it out just as easily as one who's given a drug because their parents are lazy.
posted by aaronetc at 11:12 AM on January 9, 2002

There are claims that the kid who flew that light plane into a building in Florida may have been driven nuts by the anti-acne medicine (accutane) he was taking.

I was one of the lucky ones; I never suffered from acne. Is clear skin worth dying for?
posted by Steven Den Beste at 11:16 AM on January 9, 2002

I'm not sure I see the connection between this incident and "overmedicating."

I admit it's a tad tenuous. I was just struck by the contrast between the "fun" party-type drugs me and my freinds were experimenting with at that age and the fact that kids today would be more interested in mom's "calm-down pills."
From what I can see, we wanted to get to get buzzed and rowdy like we saw parents and older kids getting. Maybe these kids want to be sedated and more productive like mom and dad. Odd shift, I guess.
posted by jonmc at 11:20 AM on January 9, 2002

Is clear skin worth dying for?

It sure felt that way when I was sixteen and my faced looked like a contour map. I would have done nearly anything it took.
posted by Skot at 11:21 AM on January 9, 2002

Sigh. faced face.
posted by Skot at 11:24 AM on January 9, 2002

when I was sixteen and my faced looked like a contour map

Skot- so did mine. Ironically though many women I've dated have said my acne scars were "sexy"(don't ask me why). So maybe the kid just shoulda hung in there.
posted by jonmc at 11:28 AM on January 9, 2002

Ditto on the contour map, minimal scarring though. I would have killed or died to be rid of those zits back in '84.

Maybe them scars make you look like a "bad boy," jonmc :)

Why do good girls like bad boys? :D
posted by UncleFes at 11:52 AM on January 9, 2002

Why do good girls like bad boys? :D
Because we are so butch!
posted by thirteen at 12:09 PM on January 9, 2002

huh? this doesn't sound much different than stuff that happened when i was a kid 30 years ago. why all the hand wringing?
posted by zoopraxiscope at 12:15 PM on January 9, 2002

why all the hand wringing?

Not hand wringing, headscratching. Why with all the fun ways to chemically warp your mind would these kids experiment with Xanax(essentially Prozac-Lite?)
posted by jonmc at 12:40 PM on January 9, 2002

Gee, whatever happened to Tussin??

As for accutane, it's ridiculous that the media is jumping all over this. Sure, it has some *rare* nasty side-effects (depression being one of them, and for God's sake, don't take it if you're going to be pregnant), but put simply, it cures acne. Forever. If you're fifteen with horrible skin you're going to be depressed anyway.
posted by drinkcoffee at 1:35 PM on January 9, 2002

I knew a kid who was selling off some of his Zoloft. It confused me, because it has a lot of side effects, but none are at all desirable. To get the anti-depressant effect you have to take it for at least a few weeks. You might as well eat small amounts of rat poison for the same effects, really...
posted by whatnotever at 1:58 PM on January 9, 2002

What, whatnotever, but kids don't know that you have to take it for a while. Their friend just says "this is cool" and they will take it.

When I was 15, this guy told me he had a pill that could make me feel stoned. So my friends and I took one each at a REM concert and don't remember anything past the first 2 songs. To this day, I have no idea what it was. I think it was Xanex, but maybe not. At any rate, I did it because the kid said it worked. Duh. She was probably just trying to be cool. Maybe it wasn't even her prescription.

At any rate, I think we all may be over prescribing ourselves these days, but the things we are dealing with as a society and world are much more complex and difficult then they used to be. If my boy were a crazy nightmare, I would give him ritalin in a heartbeat. If my kid had horrible acne...accutane away. But I've been on so many drugs for so long (I've got a million medical problems) that meds don't bother me.
posted by aacheson at 2:04 PM on January 9, 2002

You might as well eat small amounts of rat poison for the same effects, really...

Enter ... crank.
posted by cyniczny at 2:34 PM on January 9, 2002

not a troll... but what's so fun about any of this stuff? drinking, drugs, blah blah blah. i'd rather play video games.
posted by lotsofno at 3:19 PM on January 9, 2002

Lotsofno...one man's trash is another man's treasure....

Video games allow you to enter another world...realm...personality...etc. So do drugs and drinking.
posted by aacheson at 3:47 PM on January 9, 2002

Probably because its available.

Um, I dunno about you but I've always had an easier time, even at 13,scoring Haffenreffer and skunkweed than Xanax or Valium. Not to mention more fun.
posted by jonmc at 7:46 PM on January 9, 2002