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Instead of drugs, young people often take a mixture of medication and alcohol. However, this can be very dangerous.
Until now it was a small group, but now new studies for Switzerland show that the risky mixing of strong medications with alcohol is increasing among teenagers and young adults. There have been over 30 deaths in Switzerland in recent years, but knowledge about the how, where, what and why of mixed consumption was limited.
The last survey of students showed that around 4 percent of 14 and 15 year olds have already mixed medication with alcohol and consumed it. These are more students than those who use illegal drugs.
Vodka, benzos, cannabis
“When you pre-drink, you mix,” says Corina Salis Gross from the University of Zurich. She and her team from the Institute for Addiction and Health Research wanted to find out more about the problematic consumption of young people in Switzerland.
In most cases, people mix in a private room, before the exit or instead of the exit: “There is a bottle of vodka on the table, a box of benzos, other medications, cannabis, and then people consume it together,” says Salis Gross, describing her observation.
Strong prescription medications
There are medications in circulation such as strong painkillers, sedatives and cough medicines, antidepressants and ADHD medications. Some of them were prescribed to the young people themselves, some to their family members, and some were obtained through other channels.
Depending on the combination, this is life-threatening and can lead to a stroke, cardiac arrest or respiratory arrest. Boris Quednow from the Zurich University Psychiatric Hospital says that younger people are not aware of the risk.
Quednow teaches and researches pharmacopsychology and speaks of a new risk group: sons and daughters from integrated, financially well-off parents’ homes are at risk. A group, according to Quednow, that rejects drugs and sometimes incorrectly believes that drugs are safe.
A new wave of drug abuse
Quednow has representative data. These are surveys, recently combined with hair analysis, on around 20 illegal and legal substances. The latest figures show: Almost a third of 24-year-olds mix happily and have been doing so for more than just yesterday. 10 to 12 percent of them swallow high-risk mixtures of alcohol and psychoactive medications.
However, Quednow notices a change: around ten years ago something stimulating was required for the party, now it is something dampening, calming, with the aim of “saying goodbye to the world for a few hours or a weekend, from the unrest there outside”.
Salis Gros also speaks of two motives behind mixed consumption: partying and self-medication. Young people swallow something to feel less insecure, anxious or stressed.
Other prevention asked
These new results show that in order to counteract the misuse of medication in young people and avoid serious consequences, different approaches are needed than when consuming illegal drugs.
Experts are calling for additional efforts at all levels: in informing young people about the risks and in research. More attention is needed when prescribing and selling such powerful drugs. So everyone is in demand, including doctors and pharmacists, parents and other caregivers of the boys.