So where do kids hide drugs? I went to an event called “Hidden in Plain Sight: To Snoop or Not to Snoop.” It was GOOD!
A teenager’s bedroom is replicated to allow parents to “snoop” around to find indicators of drug use and hiding spots.
“The Teens Care Too” coalition is comprised of Hanover County high school students dedicated to educating their peers and parents about the dangers of substance use. A grant from the Wal-Mart Foundation helped fund the project.
Part of the presentation was entering a “bedroom” that the teens set up and you go in and see if you can find where drugs are hidden. The “Teens Care, Too” group staged it and stocked the room with ideas they have gotten from their peers who use drugs and from narcotics officers. They use this to educate parents. The teens enjoyed showing us all the clever places their peers hide drugs and had even go so far as to get drug users to make replicas of things they have used themselves to put in the room.
Gummy bears soaked in mouthwash delivers an intense high due to the high concentration of alcohol in it. But if you see mouthwash and gummy bears, you are unlikely to give it a second thought.
It was eye-opening to say the least. I can’t possibly cover all that was demonstrated but I’ll start with the least obvious–containers like you can buy at places like Spencer’s, Be Wild or eBay for under $10. Some clues of drug use were sitting on desks but if you don’t know what you are looking at, you don’t know it’s a sign of drug use. Wax paper, needle caps, tin foil all indicate drug use which we’ll cover in another blog post.
While this illustrates containers you can purchase, they can often use the real thing simply by altering it. Highlighters can be cut and drugs hidden in the caps. Vape pens used to smoke all kinds of drugs can be stored upside down among pens and it’s hard to tell that there is drug paraphernalia.
This is just part I. Thanks to Hanover County sponsors and teens for this education. I wish I had been to this event 5 years ago. Please share. We need to educate parents.
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Learn what I wish I’d known before I lost my son to drug-related suicide. By Anne Moss Rogers
Gummy bears don’t ‘soak up’ anything, they dissolve if you leave them in any liquid. Give your kids more credit than that, no one’s getting hammed drinking some nasty mouthwash/bear slurry. Other than that, yeah there’s an innumerable number of places to hide drugs. To be safe I’d just keep the children in a concrete room with no furniture, then you only have to worry about searching their person. Work smarter not harder.
They talked about how candy would be soaked up in mouthwash to get high. The cops did. So I may have the method wrong. Definitely gross. I think Robotripping is gross. And teens do that. I didn’t keep my son in a concrete room. But he did end up hooked on heroin and died by suicide. Back in 2010 I tried working smarter but resources were few and he didn’t get the support he needed. Just shame. Thanks for commenting
Wow. Please post on FB so I can share. I have a few friends who need to see this.
I love you Anne Moss…..
Again, Anne Moss, such important, practical information. Thank you!