My Child’s Drug Dealer
By Chief Danny Watson, City of Darlington Chief of Police
It is a certainty that just about every home in the United States has a medicine cabinet. Some will have more than one cabinet. There is a collection of numerous medications in those cabinets from prescribed medicine to over the counter pills of various natures. The more advanced in age the person is, the more likely they are to have more than just a bottle or two of medicines.
Most people will leave these medications unsecured and unaccounted for because they do not feel the need to secure such items in their own residences. Think about it for just a second: how many times have you been to the doctor and gotten a prescription for a pain killer, muscle relaxer or some type of pill that relaxes you so that you can sleep? Do you keep track of the number of pills that are in the bottles do you ever check them? Do you throw them out when they are no longer of any use to you?
There is a frightening trend in our country today of children going into medicine cabinets and taking pills. Some of the time they do not even know what the pills will do. That does not keep a child, teenager, or someone who has a desire to take a chance from opening up those bottles to swipe just a few, which perhaps you will never notice. All it takes is a quick search on the Internet to find out exactly what the pill is and what effects it will have. Even a very young person can get a good idea of what pills to mix together for a better high if they know where to research that information.
Parents and responsible adults alike are very worried about whom their children might come in contact with on the street. The visions of drug dealers hanging around playgrounds trying to push drugs on their children are the stuff that nightmares are made of, of that I am certain. What if, however, you are your child or grandchild’s drug dealer without even knowing it? I know that is not a pleasant thought anyone wishes to have, but the fact remains that this is a very real threat.
What can we do to prevent this from happening? First of all, one of the easiest things you can do is go through that medicine cabinet and get rid of all of that out of date stuff you do not need. Bag it up and take it to your local police department to place into evidence to be destroyed properly. Don’t flush it down the toilet. That is a tempting thing to do, I am sure, but believe it or not it can contaminate the water. Second: if you have medications such as painkillers, muscle relaxers or other types of mood altering substances, you need to lock them up where only you have access to them.
I know that most of you are saying to yourselves, my child or grandchild would never do such a thing, how dare you even think so! What about the people who come to your house? What about the other children that are brought to your home by your children or grandchildren? Can you sleep at night knowing that access to your medications allowed a child to get just enough to overdose on? I simply cannot do that; I will be very careful with the medications at my house, and I hope that you will now as well.
Remember that the most abused drugs in the United States today are prescription drugs. You can be a part of reducing the numbers of these medications that get to people that should not be in possession of them. I urge you to please be a responsible caretaker of your prescription medications. Secure those that you must use and get rid of the ones that you do not. The result of you taking these small preventative steps could save someone’s life
Chief Danny Watson MPA FBI NA # 228, Chief of Police for City of Darlington, has been on the Darlington Police Department since 1994 and Chief since 2011.
The News & Press will be sharing updates and opinions from Chief Watson on a regular basis; you can also keep up with the department on their Facebook page: Darlington Police Department.