"Cheese" - A Parent's Guide to the New Recreational Drug of 2006

As if the world wasn't complicated enough, many children, as young as middle school, are struggling with a new peer pressure stemming from a recreational drug known as "cheese". Coined "cheese" by the middle school children addicted to this recreational drug, the brown power subtance is considered a starter to a more advanced process into recreational street drugs, including heroin and cocaine. As parents and educators, understanding the implication of "cheese" as a recreational drug, the symptoms for withdrawal and the issues facing children seeking rehabilitation, will provide for a more knowledgeable society.

Labeled as the new recreational drug of 2006, primarily targeting adolescents, "cheese" has made a name among middle and high school children across the United Stated. Using common cold medicines found in many households today, teens and pre-teens are combining the ingredients with heroin to form this new brown powdered substance. As a cheap and affordable "high" many children, especially in middle school, are using the "cheese" combination, in one sniff, to obtain a high at schoo while some middle school children are even found sniffing the recreational drug through the tube of an empty ballpoint pen casing.

Considered a highly addictive recreational drug, the withdrawal symptoms will generally appear as early as six hours post use. Because the cost of this new "cheese" recreational drug is relatively cheap, many middle school children have succumb to its use and, as a result, parents are seeking drug rehabilitation services for children as young as 12 years of age. Unfortunately, with the overwhelming use of "cheese", especially during cold season when cold medicines are more easily obtained, many outpatient and inpatient drug treatment facilities are no longer able to provide the same level of care for the demand.