Middle

Today's teens are often labeled Generation M because of the extent that media saturates their lives. This program examines how different forms of media encourage young consumers to smoke more, drink more, eat more unhealthy foods, and take greater risks with sexual behavior.

This gripping program shares unforgettable real stories of teens fighting their abuse of inhalants, as well as two families who lost children to inhalant abuse. One interview segment involves an Ohio police officer whose son died after a brief experiment with inhalants.

Prescription drugs like OxyContin, Ritalin, Vicodin, Xanax and codeine based cough syrup are making headlines around the nation as teens continue to abuse these “legal” drugs by crushing the pills and snorting or injecting the powder or drinking the liquid. Studies continue to offer evidence of an emerging problem with OxyContin and Ritalin addiction among young people.

Within a single generation, the Web and digital media have remade nearly every aspect of modern culture, transforming the way we work, learn and socialize in ways that we are only beginning to understand.

Teenagers today have more money and independence than ever before. Their lives have become the object of obsessive focus by corporate America. Their tastes, attitudes, and aspirations are sampled and resampled by marketers wielding the latest scientific tools to determine exactly who they are and what they want.