Parenting Tips

What It Is

Heroin belongs to a group of pain-relieving drugs called narcotics. The drug comes from the opium poppy, a flower that grows in Asia, Mexico, and South America. Pure heroin has the consistency of white powder. Some heroin is also dark brown, while black tar heroin is either sticky or hard and looks like roofing tar.

For kids and teens, social media is an essential part of their lives, much the way telephones were important to us at their age.

About 90% of teens have used some form of social media and 75% have a profile on a social networking site, experts say.

These numbers are way up from just a few years ago, and there's almost no chance of them ever coming down again.

This isn't necessarily a reason for concern. For most teens, there are plenty of good things about social media. But there are also many potential dangers and things that you want your kids to avoid. Kids don't always make the smartest choices when they post something to a site like Facebook or YouTube, and sometimes this can lead to problems.

Cutting isn't new, but this form of self-injury has been out in the open more in recent years, portrayed in movies and on TV,even talked about by celebrities who have admitted to cutting themselves at some point.

Cutting is a serious issue that affects many teens. Even if you haven't heard about cutting, chances are good that your teen has and might even know someone who does it. Like other risky behaviors, cutting can be dangerous and habit-forming. In most cases, it is also a sign of deeper emotional distress. In some cases, peers can influence teens to experiment with cutting.