Teens giving away and sharing drugs prosecuted as drug dealers

Drugs like marijuana, heroin and prescription medications have the potential to cause serious harm to teenagers in Illinois and elsewhere who use them. When a negative event occurs, like an overdose or arrest, teenagers increasingly face the possibility of being prosecuted as drug traffickers. Supplying drugs opens the door to serious drug charges even when people do not charge any money for the drugs.

The low street prices of prescription pills make them accessible to teenagers. Adderall, the most popular pill among young people, costs about $10 per pill as do 15-milligram morphine pills from emergency rooms. Some teens also order illicit pills on the dark web and have them delivered to their homes. Teens often pool their money to purchase street drugs or prescription pills or simply steal them from adults’ medicine cabinets. They frequently share these drugs among themselves. These methods that many teenagers employ to obtain drugs might not make them think of themselves as drug dealers.