This article was written by our forum member Gr8ful Lotus.

Most kids start heroin use at the age of 12.

Yes age of 12. That would start at about 7th Grade.

Addiction is a disease. There are myriad of things one can become addicted to.

First, addiction is a disease. It does not pertain to just drug as there are a myriad of things one can become addicted to.

If you want to help a child then educate them about what drugs really are.

If you want to protect children, don’t allow T.V. ,music and Hollywood to fool them into believing its ok or even cool to use them.

Pay very close attention to your child and their emotional and psychological development.

Teach your children how to deal with the emotions they are inevitably going to experience.

Teach them how to deal with the emotions they are inevitably going to experience.

Like death of a loved one or any traumatic event like bullying or assaults that may come their way.

Teach them constructive ways to cope in these situations and how to communicate with you and others about what they are experiencing.

Teach them,educate them love them. I believe the problem is that for too long children have never had this in their lives.

Too many people are just wandering through this world with no idea how to handle all the pain and confusion that can be encountered and eventually find relief and kinship in drugs and other addicts.

This is not an attempt to accuse you of not doing this.

Simply one persons thoughts from personal experience of addiction and with helping many people try to find a way out.

The overwhelming number of people i have encountered in my life that were addicts did not have the coping skills to handle situations like i pointed out.

Or the access to understanding educated parents to guide them and support them.

I could go on and on about this subject but my thumbs are getting tired.

Lack of education on this subject and the unwillingness to be educated about it,  is killing a lot of people.

Sadly a lot of parents lack the skills to communicate with their children because their parents lacked them too. An ongoing cycle has brought us to this point.