Is Your Teen Pharming? Can You Tell?

Pharming has almost nothing to do with the pursuit of agriculture and everything to do with a new and highly dangerous way teens and even pre-teens acquire and experiment with serious drugs. With pharming, your kids are far more likely to snatch something from the home medicine chest than they are to buy from nameless shady dealers doing business on dark street corners.

While I was researching my 2004 book, "Buying Rx Drugs Online: Avoiding a Prescription for Disaster", I got my first introduction to the concept of pharming from talking with dozens of teens and young adults willing to share their stories. At least a handful of those I interviewed admitted they had had at least one serious health emergency or other dangerous incident as a result of what they describe as just a little fun between friends. As one teen, "Sean" wrote, "It's just no big scary thing. Never seen anybody get real sick or something. It's sure no worse than my parents rushing home on Friday nights to make pitchers of margaritas."

Usually performed within a group of friends or classmates, the rules of pharming can differ between various groups. But the basic practice goes like this: every teen in a group tries to come up with his or her contribution to the "grab bag".

Once or twice a week or month, the group of pharmers get together in somebody's bedroom, kitchen, or family room, and toss their donations into a pillow case or a shopping bag. Then the "goodie" bag gets passed around, with each kid choosing one or a handful of drugs at a time, until the supply is exhausted. Many of these impromptu pharming clubs have their own special rules: some take whatever assortment of drugs they happened to get right there and then while others might agree to dose themselves just before their final class on Friday afternoon.