Perhaps it is that I can barely remember being 13 or in middle school for that fact, but I do not understand in a world jam packed full of technology such as cell phones, iPods, computers and Wii games why kids feel the need to take cold medicine to get high. Ok so I was not perfect growing up, but I was too busy in middle school going to slumber parties and the mall and the movies to wonder to myself what it would be like to take some random OTC cold remedy.
My favorite part is the attitude that accompanies these pubescent, hormone-intoxicated kids when they present to ER with a chief complaint of an overdose. Seriously? What do they honestly think is going to happen when the nurses and physicians in the ER ask them why and when and how much they took? Of course you are going to be stuck with needles and asked to pee in a cup and drink activated charcoal with Hershey’s syrup over ice! And mom, please do displace your anger towards the staff trying to undo the damage 24 cold and flu tablets with acetaminophen can do.
Then there is the burning question in my mind – What happened to stealing cigarettes and sips of alcohol from your parents’ liquor cabinet? I am not as old as you think – I was just too scared to try anything else, because my mother would have killed me if ever I got caught! But I guess the times have changed and each generation has their own sense of what is cool and the thing to do. This nurse just does not get it; but then again would I want a cranky nurse taking me after I got caught chewing cold tablets like candy or some compassion – hmmm, the jury’s still it out on that one.
