Is your child into drugs?

It maybe easy to spot the signs of children who are taking drugs – and parents have been advised to look for them.

Dr Juma Sultan Alshamsi, from Department of Anti-Narcotics at Dubai Police told Emirates 24|7 that it is very important that parents notice the early signs of drug addiction in order to help their kids quit addiction in an early stage.

“There are two types of symptoms, behaviour and physical. As for the behaviour changes, the parents will notice that their kids avoid being into social gatherings and start isolating themselves. They start avoiding their old friends as well and start meeting new ones. Even at home, they avoid being with their siblings and parents. When asked any question, they tend to lie and give different answers every time for the same question.”

He said that if parents start noticing these behaviour changes, then they must look for the other symptoms which mainly are loss of appetite and being lazy and sleepy most of the time.

“The symptoms are different for each type of drug. For example, heroin addicts starts loosing weight, will have dark circles under the eye, injection marks on their arms, and the mother can find injections and spoons used to prepare and consume heroin in her son’s room or toilet.”

He added as for hashish, the most common symptom is to see hand-rolled and a bit thick cigarette in the pockets or drawers of the kid’s room.

“If the kid is consuming pills, then the parents will see empty medicine sheets in the trash bin, or will see different types of pills in the pockets and drawers.”

He warned parents that all these symptoms must be taken seriously, and not ignored or underestimated at all.

“Noticing these symptoms early and taking action is the only way to save the kids life and future. Unfortunately, many parents think that this is part of the new generation’s life as teenagers and they don’t take these symptoms seriously. If the son or daughter was really taking drugs, then such ignorance will lead them to become addicts, and then going back to normal life will be too late.”

He added that parents today must have knowledge of how to use the Internet.

“I advise parents to take computer courses and to have a fair knowledge of the Internet. This is very needful as they can visit the same sites that their kids visit. This will give them an idea of what their kids are thinking of or doing. However, they must do this in a clever way and not show their children that they are being cops in their lives. This will push their kids away from them.”