Coughing up the next addiction

The dust has just settled after the video about the young school boys who smoked a herbal drug blend did the rounds, and a new trend has emerged – drinking cough syrup.

The herbal drug story sent shock waves through the community. The youngster later apologised on video for his behaviour. During a radio interview earlier this week, he said that his friend had bought the stuff a day earlier and he was told the effect would only last for about half an hour. He wasn’t even sure what he was smoking, but he explained that the experience wasn’t nice at all. He said his body didn’t want to respond to his brain’s signals. Or something to that effect.

Although I believe that some teenagers experiment with either cigarettes or drugs at some stage, I still don’t understand it. It is that one decision that can change your life and that of your loved ones forever. Just one drag on a cigarette, just one syringe or just one line is enough to get you hooked. It’s that simple.

The latest trend, I believe, is getting hooked on cough syrup to get that codeine fix. But apparently you have to drink the whole bottle at one time. I was told that it is often mixed with Sprite as well. Apparently, if you are a fan of Lil Wayne, the rapper who is addicted to codeine, that is what you do to be as cool as him.

In my days, smoking cigarettes already classified you as being a bad-ass and if you smoked dagga you were just pure evil. There was just no place for druggies in our circle of friends. Let me rephrase that … although I am pretty sure some of my friends indulged in the occasional high on whatever their drug of choice was, I remained ignorant, and innocent.

I was too busy doing other things, like reading, swimming and irritating my brother. That was way more fun.

What has happened to the youth of today? If these are the life choices they make at such an early age, what are their future choices going to be like?

Oh my, how things have changed. How I would love to relive my childhood.

Until next week, take care of one another.