Children that grow up in the same neighbourhood and attend the same primary school and high school, tend to stay in the same peer group throughout their school career. A sudden change in peer group warrants closer inspection, especially if unsavoury characters are involved.

Since peer group pressure plays a very important role in drug experimentation, your children and their friends must be known intimately.

Since various of drugs are tranquillisers, abusers tend to sleep in class or they are on such a high that they fail to concentrate. This inevitably leads to a drop in achievement not only on the academic field but also in sport.

Many of the modern day drugs serve as eating suppressants and therefore rapid weight loss is common. Eating disorders are difficult to detect and must not be confused with other sicknesses such as anorexia.

Moodswings should not be confused with puberty rebelliousness. The moodswings are usually quite severe and the individual might be above the normal aggressive or very apathetic.

Theft is one of the best indicators of drug abuse. It happens in almost all the cases that children will steal from parents in order to finance their drug habit. Theft of cellphones, cash, jewelry, electrical appliances such as TV's, video machines, Hi-fi's are common. Children tend to avert to this action since it is a "safe" environment to steal in since parents rarely prosecute.

Should you recognize two or more of these symptoms, one must go deeper and identify the specific drug or drugs in question.

SYMPTOMS

After you have educated yourself regarding the appearance and side-effects of drugs that are available on the black market in South Africa, the next question that arises is which symptoms one must be aware of, indicating drug abuse amongst children.

Although there are no set rules whereby symptoms can be determined, there are certain indicators that can be used with a ± 90% success rate in determining whether a person is involved in the abuse of drugs.