The drugs of choice for today's youth

Learn about: The drugs of choice for today's youth from Karen Khaleghi, PhD,...
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The drugs of choice for today's youth

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The issues of substance use and abuse for teenagers and for kids actually is; what is available to them. What is available to them in the world. What I get, a frequent discussion request is, in what is the drug of choice today and what do we need to look for. Parents are concerned about huffing. They are concerned about prescription pill use. If we're to look at that, that's a separate subset of what we want to talk about and has its own indicators. But, the most abused drug is the drug that is most available to them. And for kids that's alcohol, overwhelmingly. So most statistics today would put the alcohol rate at about 52% of the kids use or have access to or have used in the recent past alcohol. The one that comes up next is pot. Marijuana. That's the next available drug of use. And so we're looking at that in about the 25-26% of the kids have used, tried or recently consumed. And then we really drop-down in terms of pills to under 10%. Huffing is around 1 or 2 percent. So statistically the drug that is most used is alcohol. And we're looking at what's the most available drug to that kid. That's the drug that's going to be abused.

Learn about: The drugs of choice for today's youth from Karen Khaleghi, PhD,...

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Karen Khaleghi, PhD

Co-founder of Creative Care Malibu

Dr. Karen Khaleghi is a pioneer in the field of dual diagnosis, or co-occurring drug and alcohol addiction along with mental health disorders. As one of the co-founders of Creative Care in Malibu and co-author of The Anatomy of Addiction, Dr. Karen speaks to parents and organizations about the formation of addiction, the critical aspects of nature and nurture and the resulting disconnection between emotions and behavior as well as the genesis of addiction and the path to recovery, a process she calls "connecting the dots." 

There are many things that set Dr. Karen Khaleghi apart from others including her individualized treatment approaches and excellent treatment facility Creative Care which is filled with clinical staff comprised of professionals that offer the highest standard of care in the industry. Karen graduated from California Graduate Institute with her Ph.D in 1989 and lives in Los Angeles, CA with her loving husband and children. Dr. Karen Khaleghi has been featured on The Today Show, KCAL 9, Dr. Phil and many others!

 

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Transcription: 
The issues of substance use and abuse for teenagers and for kids actually is; what is available to them. What is available to them in the world. What I get, a frequent discussion request is, in what is the drug of choice today and what do we need to look for. Parents are concerned about huffing. They are concerned about prescription pill use. If we're to look at that, that's a separate subset of what we want to talk about and has its own indicators. But, the most abused drug is the drug that is most available to them. And for kids that's alcohol, overwhelmingly. So most statistics today would put the alcohol rate at about 52% of the kids use or have access to or have used in the recent past alcohol. The one that comes up next is pot. Marijuana. That's the next available drug of use. And so we're looking at that in about the 25-26% of the kids have used, tried or recently consumed. And then we really drop-down in terms of pills to under 10%. Huffing is around 1 or 2 percent. So statistically the drug that is most used is alcohol. And we're looking at what's the most available drug to that kid. That's the drug that's going to be abused.