Things to Know About the Risks of Party Culture

Partying among teens and young adults may have been viewed as relatively normal behavior in previous generations, yet these days, given the considerable dangers associated with various drugs and drug behaviors, the risks are far greater. Today’s “party culture” is more likely to involve prescription medications combined with alcohol and other drugs, the consequences of which can be very harmful, particularly because people between the ages of 12 and 25 have bodies and minds that are still developing.

Researchers now know more about adolescent brain development than ever before. And though teenagers are fast approaching legal adulthood, their brains continue to experience the intense emotions, unrelenting peer pressure, and quest for short-term reward that accompanies adolescence.¹ By the time kids enter college, the parts of their brain involved with reward seeking and stimulation are firing on all cylinders. Couple this with an environment rife with temptation to use intoxicating substances, and dangerous situations are sure to arise. Such situations and their adverse outcomes might include:

• Pharma parties.
• Overdosing.
• Being involved in sexual assault.

Read on to learn more about the risks of party culture for teens and young adults.

What Are Pharm Parties?

In recent years, prescription drug use has escalated, so much so that it currently ranks second only to marijuana use among young adults. The combination of increased accessibility of prescription drugs, the misconception that prescription drugs are safer than other drugs, and the social acceptability of using prescription drugs has created the perfect storm for prescription drug misuse and abuse.²

A particularly worrying new trend among young people is sharing prescription and over-the-counter medications to get high. Teens gather to have a “pharm party”—also sometimes referred to as “Skittles parties”—where they each bring prescription drugs and contribute to a mixture of pills thrown into a bowl. These bowls and baggies of random pills mixed together are often referred to as “trail mix.” Teenagers pass around the bowl and each person takes a handful of the drugs to get high.² Additionally, “pharming” refers to adolescents gaining access to and distributing pharmaceutical medications for personal use or to sell for profit.²

Thanks to the Internet, teenagers also know more about drugs and have determined which ones are more valuable. For example, they’ll deem that OxyContin is worth more than Xanax and require 2 or 3 Xanax in exchange for 1 OxyContin. It’s also common for a friend group to celebrate when a member of the group has a surgery or other medical procedure because they have the opportunity to get more prescription pain medications.² 

Some teens even pharm for profit. They might purchase prescription drugs in other countries or online and sell them individually for a much higher price. For example, a teen could buy a bottle of 90 Vicodin tablets for about $220 and charge at least $10 a pill to their friends or schoolmates. Pharming ADHD medications like Ritalin can be much more lucrative on high school and college campuses, with the price per pill as high as $20.²

If you are pharming or thinking about it, consider the risks. Getting caught selling or using prescription or illicit drugs could cause you serious legal problems, physical risks—possible overdose, injury, and addiction—trouble at school, and destroyed relationships with your family and loved ones.

Easily Accessible Drugs for Teens

A number of potentially dangerous drugs are easily accessible to teens. Alcohol, prescription drugs, over-the-counter medications, cough medicine, marijuana, K2 or Spice, and household products like inhalants are all abused substances that you might come across at home, at a party, or at a friend’s house.³ 

These drugs may not be heroin or cocaine, but they aren’t necessarily harmless, either, as might be the common perception. Today’s party culture may include abusing the following substances:

The Risk of Overdosing

When using illicit drugs like heroin, meth, MDMA, or even “study drugs” bought from a street dealer or questionable online source, an added danger exists with the fact that many of these could be cut with other harmful substances. When you take substances from people on the street, online, or from your peers, you don’t actually know what you’re taking. Your friend my offer you something and say, “Trust me, this stuff is pure,” but unless they have tested the drug themselves, there is no way that they can know whether or not the drug is pure. Drug dealers are good at what they do and they know what ingredients to use to dilute or bulk up drugs. Sometimes, adulterants like sugar, lead, caffeine, pesticides, aluminum, and glass are often added to drugs without the buyer’s knowledge.⁶ When you’re involved in the party culture, you place yourself at far greater risk of exposure to these dangerous substances.

More dangerous adulterants like fentanyl, carfentanil, and U-4770 (Pink) are now commonly cut into street drugs and counterfeit prescription painkillers, and they pose an extreme risk to users. These adulterants contain as much as 100 times the potency of morphine, and even a small amount (the size of a snowflake) can be fatal.⁷ According to the DEA, between January and March, 2016, 9 people died from taking counterfeit Xanax pills containing fentanyl; between March and April, 2016, there were 52 overdoses and 12 deaths from counterfeit hydrocodone tablets.⁷

Dangers of Sexual Assault

Studies consistently establish a link between alcohol and sexual assault. As many as 23% of female college students (nearly 1 in 4) report experiencing unwanted sexual contact while they were incapacitated due to alcohol or drugs. Of those, 11% said that the unwanted contact included oral sex or penetration.⁸ And females are not the only ones who experience assault. According to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, 1 in 16 men are sexually assaulted in college.⁹ So, being an active part of the college (or high school) party culture may place you at greater risk for being sexually assaulted if you are regularly compromised or incapacitated by substances.

When men drink, it significantly increases the odds that they will perpetrate a sexual assault; however, it is important to remember that being drunk does not cause men to sexually assault. Certain factors may lead to both alcohol consumption and sexual assault by men. For example, sexual assaulters are more likely:¹¹

• To have a hostile view toward women.
• Be a member of a fraternity that encourages both heavy drinking and sexual exploitation of women.
• To have a history of trauma, violence, or abuse as a child.

For more resources and information on sexual assault and how to find help if you have been a victim, visit the following sites:

How to Stay Safe and Take Preventative Steps

Almost 700,000 people between the ages of 18 and 24 get injured while under the influence each year, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.¹² The easiest way to stay safe and prevent the harmful effects of alcohol or drugs is to avoid parties—but if you do go, there are harm-reduction strategies that you can practice, such as: