So I just heard about this new drug term that kids these days are using. They call it "pharming" because the drugs they're talking about are prescription drugs, you know, from a pharmacy.

I only caught mention of the term on tv when I was drawing blood in a patient's room, so I figured it's part of my motherly duty to know wtf they're talking about. Right? So I'm not all retarded and going, "Hmm...Mercedes has a new career in mind. She wants to go to her buddy's house who must raise some kind of livestock. I just heard her talk about a farming party." Yeah. Things like that are important. So I've read up on it, not that there's much to know - just a new term for an old practice.

And you have to think about this. It's no wonder kids are picking up Rx drugs so easily - doctors are passing them out like candy, it seems. I had my little issue where I went to the ER for whatever that pain was that I had, and even though I said the pain was completely gone, the doctor still offered me a scrip for a narcotic pain med. My dad went to the doctor yesterday because he got something in his eye, and even though he said his eye didn't hurt after the foreign matter was removed, the doctor still tried to give him a scrip for Vicadin. WTF? And not everyone feels any need to decline a med they don't need. So kids have easy access, because these same people that don't feel any responsibility toward themselves tend to not feel any responsibility to keep these meds up and out of the way, let alone have a conversation about how dangerous it can be to take these meds when they don't need them or when they aren't prescribed just for them. I mean, I just had a fit the other day because my dad was overmedicating himself, deliberately and in front of my kids. Granted it was just Nyquil, but CRAP. So I made a harsh and strong point to make an example of him to the kids, IN FRONT of him, and told them that their grandfather probably wasn't going to get any better, and that what he was doing was dangerous because there is a REASON that there are instructions on the package for how much you should take. I swear, I really hate having to be a parent to the generation before me when I'm so busy trying to raise the generation that I brought into the world.

the last trail...the next path