Have any of your kitchen or bathroom faucets lost their filters? What about your window screens? Do they have any missing chunks? Do you ever walk into the bathroom and become overwhelmed by the scent of heavily-sprayed perfume?

Kids are amazingly resourceful when it comes to creating methods of ingesting drugs. They don’t need to go to a “head shop" to find these tools. Everything they need can be found in the home. As parents, you really need to be aware of these signs.

Have you ever gone to the fridge to find an entire cake gutted from the inside? Have you ever found incredible amounts of junk food missing from your pantry?

Has money ever gone missing from your wallet or purse? Do your other children ever complain that stuff is missing from their rooms? Do you ever walk around your home and notice certain things that just make you go, “Huh?"

Chances are that you are NOT losing your mind. If you have any concern that your child may be abusing drugs, please pay attention to these very common household signs.

Everyday household stuff can easily be used for making drug paraphernalia. More expensive items like bicycles, musical instruments and iPods can be sold or hawked to pay their dealers.

What is my son or daughter using the pens, pop bottles and mesh filters for?

Kids frequently use these items to make bongs. Bongs are pipes used as a method to inhale marijuana and/or hashish through a water filter. Some kids think this is a purer way to filter out the harmful carcinogens that marijuana and hashish contain. Some of them consider this to be a healthier “high."

There are hundreds of thousands of places via a Google search on the internet where they can learn how to build these homemade pipes.

As a substitute for pop bottles, they will use the glass from hurricane lamps, large jars, soda cans and just about anything else that can provide a “chamber."

What happened to all of my spoons and candles?

Spoons and candles can be used in a variety of different ways to ingest drugs. Sometimes, hashish oil is heated in an everyday teaspoon over a lit candle and inhaled (through the hollow tube of a pen.) Spoons are also used for mixing and injecting stronger drugs like methamphetamine (meth, ice), but sadly, by the time your child reaches that stage, you will likely be aware of it already.

I could have sworn I had a pair of diamond earrings in my jewellery box.

Nothing in your house is sacred when you have a child heavily influenced by drugs. Yes, they will steal from their own mother. Check your valuables every once in a while. If stuff starts to disappear, start asking questions.

What happened to that cake I had in the fridge? It looks like a pack of animals got at it.

No, that wasn’t a pack of animals. It was likely your son or daughter coming down from a high, desperately needing a fix of sugar. They didn’t use a fork. They used their hands. They also prepared and consumed three packages of Kraft macaroni and cheese all at once.

I left my purse on the kitchen counter and now $50 is missing.

You’re not imagining this. Even in your own household, you are vulnerable to theft from the child who is addicted to drugs. Your other children are also extremely vulnerable. They may not want to tell you, but they may suspect their brother or sister is stealing from them.

Often, there are no obvious red flags to alert us that our children have already started down the path to drug hell. As parents, we have to look at the subtleties.

Look around you. Look around your house. If something doesn’t seem right, it probably isn’t. Keep track of your stuff. Don’t listen to the “dog ate my homework" story.

For the sake of your beloved child and yourself, don’t ignore these common household signs of possible drug abuse. Your child may already be feeling out of control.

Use these early opportunities to take a stand. If you really don’t feel right about something that’s going on right under your roof, trust your gut instinct and address it now.

Your son’s or daughter’s life may depend on it.

Copyright 2007 Karen Braschuk