Dear Kid,

Have you heard about powdered caffeine? It’s the latest scary substance to hit college campuses.

Lets’ start with the basics: Avoid powdered caffeine.

Let me be clear. Caffeine isn’t great, but it isn’t hideously awful (unless you’re trying to quit caffeine—which I can tell you from personal experience is No Fun Whatsoever). I, myself, personally have gone back to drinking coffee. And Diet Coke. And sometimes tea.

I’ll be honest. I am addicted (see above comment about quitting).

But a cup of coffee (or two) or even a bunch of cups of coffee the morning of a big final are not what I’m talking about. Worst case with too many Stbx, you’re going to get jittery, and have an acid stomach, and be awake to enjoy your jittery stomach.

With caffeine powder, however, there is a good chance you won’t be around to be awake. And while sleeping thr

ough side effects is a little unkind, being dead through side effects is just downright rude.

The facts:

• Caffeine is a drug albeit one that is regulated like a dietary supplement when it’s regulated at all.
• A 12 ounce Diet Coke has about 45 milligrams of caffeine.
• An 8 oz cup of coffee has about 95 milligrams of caffeine.
• One grande Starbucks coffee (16 oz) has about 330 milligrams of caffeine (even their decaf has a lot of caffeine).
  

• Experts say you should have no more than 600 milligrams of caffeine per day.
• 5,000 to 10,000 milligrams is considered lethal (let me repeat: LETHAL).
• The serving size for powdered caffeine is 1/16 of a teaspoon. The smallest measuring spoon I own is ¼ teaspoon.
• One teaspoon of powdered caffeine (which looks like oh so reasonable an amount), has over 2,300 milligrams of caffeine (think 25 cups of coffee. All at once.).
• Two regular spoonfuls of powdered caffeine is the same as chugging 70 Red Bulls. Which is unhealthy for more reasons than I care to write about.

Stay away from powdered caffeine and get your jitters the old fashioned way.

Love, Mom

Dear Kid,

All of a sudden (it seems), the hot new trend is hookah. That is not the New England pronunciation of a street walker, it is the water pipe used to smoke tobacco. Hookah can also be called narghile, argileh, shisha, hubble-bubble, or goza but I have no idea why.

This “overnight” sensation (and I know it’s a sensation because John Taffer did a Bar Rescue episode for a hookah bar) began several centuries ago in Persia and India. So much for overnight, unless you’re Rip Van Winkle on steroids.

Some people think smoking tobacco through a hookah is safe. In a word, they are wrong, wrong, wrong. Also, they are not right. Here are the facts.

Hookah tobacco and smoke contain toxins that can cause clogged arteries and heart disease.

None of the toxins are taken out by the water or the smoke. Allow me to repeat: None. As in, not a-one.

Hookah smokers get the same fabulous menu of dread diseases cigarette smokers get including

• Oral cancer
• Lung cancer
• Stomach cancer
• Cancer of the esophagus
• Reduced lung function
• Decreased fertility

Only they probably have an increased risk because the way it’s used, hookah smokers generally absorb more of the toxins than cigarette smokers. An average hookah session lasts an hour, which generally translates to 200 puffs (an average cigarette lasts 20 puffs) and 90,000 milliliters of smoke (500 milliliters inhaled for a cig).

The second-hand smoke is worse too since you get the smoke from the tobacco and from the charcoal that’s used as the heat source.

Hookah smoking is generally a group activity and the pipe is passed around—which means the opportunity for infection from a shared mouthpiece. Oh, good.

Here’s the truth about more hookah mythology:

• Flavored tobacco isn’t healthier.
• Electronic hookah smoking (including steam stones and hookah pens) is not healthier.
• Tobacco-based shisha and “herbal” shisha are not healthier.
• The labels and ads that claim users can enjoy the same taste from hookah without the harmful effects of tobacco are blowing smoke. Toxic smoke.

Stay smoke free, kiddo.

Love, Mom

Dear Kid,

It’s no laughing matter.

The latest in horrific drugs has hit college campuses in the US. And it has come to your campus too.

It’s an opioid called krokodil (pronounced crocodile) that causes severe tissue damage, phlebitis, and gangrene. Krokodil can be injected, smoked, or snorted. Amputation is highly likely and life expectancy for users is about 2 years.

This is bad stuff.

Krokodil is often manufactured using commonly found medication and household chemicals (like paint thinner and gasoline).

Many people using krokodil thought they were buying heroine or that they had found an inexpensive substitute for heroine. Krokodil costs about 1/3 of the cost of heroine. The Athens county sheriff has gone so far as to encourage people to be sure they trust their heroine source.

This is bad, bad stuff.

It is called krokodil because its flesh-eating properties eat away at the user’s skin leaving open wounds and scaly sores. Effects of the drug have been described as black or green scaly skin, skin falling off to the bone, and a “zombie drug—it eats you from the inside out.” Doctors have described the “distinctive odor of rotting flesh.”

It is a short-lived high, and users find themselves in a destructive cycle of avoiding withdrawal and chasing the next high with no time for anything else. Another reason krokodil has been called a zombie drug.

This is really, really bad stuff.

If you know anyone who using heroine, please help them get help. Do not let them accidentally take krokodil. Somebody’s mom will thank you.

Love, Mom

Please share this post. Help educate people about the horrors of krokodil.