How often is it that someone who gets "legaly" high will move onto illegal drugs?

if she is going to such extremes to get high…my opinion is that unless there is intervention, hard stuff is just down the road. Sounds like right now, she is merely using what she can get her hands on..is she old enough to find/purchase or steal hard drugs?? If she is a minor or young teen, maybe she is just crying out for help in her own way. I wish you both the best.

I think that your story of your friend is alarming. The general odds of the population-at-large is irrelevant here. Concentrate on helping your friend, immediately. Is there family nearby to assist or intervene? Good luck.

Sounds like she has a real problem…any misuse of OTC or any other non-drugs (glue fumes for example) can be harmful or fatal, plus, her use of them in that manner is illegal. Try to be a friend and help get her into counseling and/or talk to her parents or other adult relative who can assist. The kind of harm she’s doing to herself may have very damaging effects to brain function and cause irreparable organ damage.

honestly i think she’d be better off with weed than what she’s doing now.

there is a common misconception that marijuana is a gateway drug. This has been proven untrue. in your friends case with abusing “legal” drugs… the way she is using them, most labels will tell you is considered to be “deliberate or intentional misuse.” Deliberate or intentional misuse of many over the counter products can be illegal, harmful, and/or fatal. Talk to your friend. try and find out what is driving her to act out. her behavior sounds desperate and attention grabbing. Without knowing her its hard to say but she sounds like the type of person who will abuse the hard stuff as well once she finds access to some. the best thing for you to do is to try and open a dialogue to get closer to the root of her problem…. being a teen sucks, some of us make bad choices in that period of our lives. but things get better. honestly. she needs to make sure she lives through it and doesnt form a serious addiction or end up in jail to see that life will get better.

yeah I agree. marijuana is definitely not a gateway drug. It may be a drug of access since users who do other drugs also smoke weed but the two are correlated only and there is no proof of causation.

Furthermore, if she is into otc sleeping pills and that kind of stuff it is unlikely she’d switch to coke and more likely try to get other non-otc pills like muscle relaxants or oxycontins which i know a few people who are reallly into and seriously that stuff is probably more dangerous than weed or a little bit of recreational coke use.

prescription pain pills and sleeping pills in general for that matter are very addictive and can cause serious damage to the liver with abuse.

Im not one for celebrity gossip but i had hoped the recent tragic death of Heath Ledger, a talented actor adored by so many young people, would have sent a cautionary message about the dangers of prescription pill misuse and abuse. He was just the latest in a long line of talent to die of overdose while at the height of their career. Anyone have access to the number of US overdose fatalities per year?

Yes, it can. Your firend is showing serious signs that she needs professional help fast. Please tell someone like a school counselor or teacher.

@Marc: Here’s one study
Here’s another

Get your friend some help ASAP. Like generalspecific said, shed be much better off just smoking weed. Inhalants are about the dumbest thing you can do. OTC sleeping meds fall really close behind this. Very dangerous.