dangerous behavior

Teens may be boozing less but now they're abusing the prescription drugs foundin home medicine cabinets

Hey parents, I have some good news and bad news. First, the good news. Your teenagers are boozing less and using fewer street drugs like cocaine and Ecstasy than previous generations. Now the bad news, they’re getting high on prescription painkillers like Oxy and Vicodin.

Though overall teen drug use is down nationwide, more teens abuse prescription drugs than any other illicit drug, except marijuana. Teens are abusing prescription drugs because they’re easy to get and they’re often free. You’re probably thinking, "Free? Where in the world are they free?" In a recent survey, 65 percent of teens who abuse prescription pain relievers say they get them from you, Mom and Dad (or Grandma or their friends).

Remember those painkillers you took for your bad back? How many did you take? How many were left over? Where are they? Would you miss them if a few disappeared? Probably not. Abuse of prescription drugs is a major problem with about one in four teens admitting to have taken these drugs in the past year. Do you realize abuse of these drugs accounts for one quarter of a million ER visits each year?

If you thought only adults abused prescription drugs, you thought wrong. Prescription drugs are the drug of choice among 12- to 13-year-olds! One third of all new prescription drug abusers in 2006 were 12- to 17-year-olds and 60 percent of teens (12-17) first tried them before age 15?

And it gets worse. Drugs used to treat behavioral disorders like Ritalin and Adderall are also popular with teens. With five million children taking these legally, it’s easy to find someone using them and just as easy to “borrow” a few or steal some without anyone missing them.

Even drugs you might not associate with getting high, such as those used to treat anxiety disorders such as Xanax or Valium are prime targets for teens.

If you’re still wondering why so many kids are taking these drugs, many kids mistakenly believe that they must be safe because a doctor prescribed them. Well, yeah, a doctor prescribed them, but for SOMEONE ELSE. The point is it’s not safe because it wasn’t prescribed for them.

Using a prescription drug to get high is no safer than taking an illegal drug. Prescription drugs are powerful and can be as dangerous as cocaine or heroin. Even one improper use of a prescription drug can be dangerous and abuse of prescription drugs can result in addiction, serious health issues and, in some cases, death.

Mom and Dad, here are three important things you should do to prevent your child from misusing prescription medication:

EDUCATE yourself about medications that kids are abusing.

COMMUNICATE with your kids so they understand the dangers of taking any medication that has not been prescribed for them.

SAFEGUARD your medications at home and other places. Lock ‘em up and safely dispose of medicines you no longer take. This means contacting local authorities to ask where you can legally dispose of your prescription drugs. Don’t flush them down the toilet!

Teens must learn that pharmaceutical drugs can be just as dangerous as illicit street drugs. They need to know it’s not just a matter of over-dosing, but that mixing different drugs, or combining drugs and alcohol, can be just as deadly (witness what happened to Whitney Houston). And they need to know that it is illegal to use, or to provide someone else with a prescription drug that has not been prescribed specifically for them. If caught they will go to jail.

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Defensive Driving

Austin-based Tesla faces new probe focused on remote driving feature

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The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is investigating 2.6 million Teslas.

Federal regulators have opened an investigation into 2.6 million Teslas after reports of crashes involving the use of company technology that allows drivers to remotely command their vehicle to return to them, or move to another location, using a phone app.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration also said Tuesday, January 7 that Austin-based Tesla did not report any of the accidents. Tesla is under order to report crashes on “publicly accessible roads” involving vehicles being operated through its autonomous driving technology.

The new investigation follows another probe launched in October looking into the company's “Full Self-Driving” system after getting reports of crashes in low-visibility conditions, including one that killed a pedestrian. That investigation covers 2.4 million Teslas from the 2016 through 2024 model years.

Tesla did not respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press.

One driver filed a complaint after a crash while using Tesla's “Actually Smart Summon” technology and NHTSA is looking into another three similar incidents based on media reports, the NHTSA said. The agency is looking into 12 total incidents reported by users of the technology.

Each of the vehicles failed to detect posts and other parked vehicles, according to the NHTSA.

Regulators say the vehicles struck objects because the users had "too little reaction time to avoid a crash, either with the available line of sight or releasing the phone app button, which stops the vehicle’s movement.”

Shares of Tesla Inc. slid more than 4 percent in late afternoon trading Tuesday.

Musk has complained that U.S. regulations are too onerous and are holding back the development of self-driving cars. Ethics experts are worried that once President-elect Donald Trump takes office, Musk will push him to ease oversight of Tesla, which just suffered its first decline in annual sales in more than a decade.

Musk donated an estimated $250 million to Trump's presidential campaign and is a frequent guest at Trump's Mar-a-Lago, vetting cabinet nominees and meeting with foreign heads of state. Trump has put Musk in charge of an advisory group, the Department of Government Efficiency, that will recommend where to cut government expenses and staff at federal agencies and reduce regulation.

The NHTSA said it will look into the top speed that Teslas can reach when users deploy its “summons” technology, as well as restrictions on public roads and line of sights requirements. It also said it expects to check for any “connectivity delays" with the app that could result in increased stopping distance.

Tesla’s Model 3 owner’s manual says that its “summons” feature is designed for use only in parking lots and driveways on private property and is disabled on public roads.

The new probe covers 2016-2025 Model S and X vehicles, 2017-2025 Model 3, 2020-2025 Model Y equipped with Tesla's Full Self-Driving driver assistance system.

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