HOW CAN I TELL IF MY CHILD IS USING DRUGS?

It is often difficult to separate typical teenage behaviour from drug-induced behaviour; but parents should consider the following possibilites.

• Does your child's character seem to be changing?

Were they happy and out going?

Are they becoming more ;
irritable, secretive, unpredictable, hostile, uncooperative, withdrawn, easily provoked, oversensitive, uncommunicative?

• Is your child performing less well at school?

Are they showing little or no interest?

Are they unable to get up in the morning, but wide awake at night?

• Is your child changing friends, dress code or interests?
Has the child:
A new group of friends?
The language of new friends?
Hair styles like new friends?
Switched clothes styles?
Become reluctant to talk about new friends?
Demanded permission to stay out later than usual?

.

• Is the child beginning to show physical and/or mental deterioration?

Does the child show:
Disordered thinking or ideas and thought patterns that seem out-of-order?
Heightened sensitivity to touch, smell, sound and taste?
Increased appetite from smoking marijuana (known as the "munchies")?
Loss of ability to blush?
Decreased ability in rapid thought processes?
Weight loss?

Such behavioural changes may occur over a period of a few months, the summer, or over a year or more. These patterns should be monitored closely by parents.

DRUGS IN THE RHONDDA

DRUGS AND THE RISKS OF TAKING THEM.

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