NOTE
FROM THE EDITOR
Dear North Dakota readers and supporters,
In this edition of ABUSE Magazine we are focusing on how important it is to buckle up! With this age group, as
you may know in Junior High School a lot of our teens are learning how to drive and getting their permits. We
want to instill in these young drivers the importance of safe driving skills that will follow them throughout life.
“Skittles” & “Pharm” Parties
Cyberbullying / Bullying
This dangerous trend is very serious and scary. We want to bring
awareness to the dangers of “Skittles” & “Pharm” parties for concerned parents, our readers and faculty at the schools these are slang
terms to be aware of. These parties are consisting of kids stealing
prescription drugs from parents, grandparents and anywhere else the
kids can get a hold of prescription drugs. It does not matter what
prescription drug, that is the scariest part of this trend! They are
simply dumping handfuls of colorful pills into a bowl, or jar and then
grabbing a handful and taking them all together. Obviously this is
very dangerous and all of us at ABUSE Magazine want to encourage
anyone who has prescription drugs to keep them locked up. Out of
sight out of mind!
With today’s technology it can be challenging to be a working
parent and keeping up with what our children are doing online. I have
recently learned about a term called “Chatroulette” that I wanted
to share with others even our children on how dangerous this online
game is. This is where a child is online in a random chat room and are
“dared” to speak with a stranger not knowing who they are chatting
with or where the other person is located. In most cases the kids are
speaking with adults and predators that are looking for their next
victim and can also learn the location of the kids. In the chat rooms
there have been “dares” going on where a student is being dared to
even show provocative photos to the other person in the chat room.
Also, cyberbullying has proven to have lifelong effects on our children.
Tobacco & Marijuana
Prevention
All of us have been in Junior High School and remember the peer
pressures when it comes to smoking cigarettes and trying marijuana
for the first time because it is the “cool” thing to do. In this edition
we want to let the kids know the dangers of tobacco use and the long
term effects, also the effects of marijuana. With today’s generation
our children have newer trends that we need to keep up with when it
comes to marijuana use. We’ve all seen the news about not smoking
cigarettes and adults are turning to E-Cigarettes or Vapor Cigarettes,
today’s youth have also found a way to use these alternatives to
smoking nicotine and are using these devices to smoke marijuana
with the oil from the marijuana leaf “hash oil” in the vapor cigarettes
without the odor of marijuana being traced.
We have shared the Amanda Todd’s Nightmare story in this issue
it is a true story about a teen girl who ultimately took her own life
due to cyberbullying and bullying in school. This in my opinion is a
perfect example of how words combined with cyberbullying effect
our children in today’s world.
All of the topics in our publication hold great importance when it
comes to our youth. Our goal at ABUSE Magazine is to bring awareness
to each of these issues and to provide resources for those parents and
children that may be struggling with any kind ABUSE whether that be
teen depression to drug addiction, we cover it ALL.
ABUSE Magazine would like to say thank you to all of our supporters and readers for your contributions and participation in
helping us provide this free preventative educational magazine to
our local schools, with your help we can make a difference!
New Dangerous Trends
At ABUSE Magazine we are always trying to stay up to date with
new trends. If you have not heard of “Trunking” this is a dangerous
new trend we are talking about in this edition where kids are transporting extra friends in the trunk of their cars because they simply do
not fit in the vehicle. Of course this is very dangerous and we want
to bring awareness to our readers about this trend. “The Choking
Game”, “The Cinnamon Challenge” and “Vodka Eyeballing” just to
name of few of the new trends we are seeing. These are all topics
we want to also bring awareness to and show the kids the life threatening dangers of.
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| North Dakota Spring/Summer 2014 | abusemagazine.org
Sincerely,
Brooke
Brooke Sprute/Editor
Please feel free to contact us:
ABUSE Magazine
1-877-687-8172 or visit us online at
www.abusemagazine.org