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There's an SF/Lovecraftian short story about a teenage boy who is exhibiting bizarre behaviours that seem to coincide with the warning signs of drug use in a pamphlet, quoted frequently in the story. While drugs of some kind are involved, the situation is far from the standard behavioural problem of illicit drug use.

I tried asking Google "Is Your Child Using Drugs? Seven Warning Signs For Parents" and you do NOT get any short stories

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    I checked ISFDB stories that have "Seven Signs" in the title but neither of the stories listed there is your story
    – Andrew
    Commented Oct 15, 2023 at 13:12
  • You could improve this question by going through the checklists here and editing in any relevant info you can think to add.
    – Valorum
    Commented Oct 15, 2023 at 23:22
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    The whole Rachel Pollack story can be read here - books.google.com/… - seems like a good prospect, but it's user14111's find.
    – Andrew
    Commented Oct 15, 2023 at 23:48
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    Instead of bothering the fascists at Google, you should have just used the advanced search feature at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database.
    – user14111
    Commented Oct 16, 2023 at 1:34
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    @Andrew I checked ISFDB for short fiction titles with "seven" + "signs", "7" + "signs", "warning" + "parents", etc. On my 4th or 5th try I searched for "child" + "drugs" and the only hit was Rachel Pollack's "Is Your Child Using Drugs? Seven Ways to Recognize a Drug Addict".
    – user14111
    Commented Oct 16, 2023 at 1:43

1 Answer 1

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Is Your Child Using Drugs? Seven Ways to Recognize a Drug Addict, a short story by Rachel Pollack. You may have read it in one of these compilations.

At least the title sort of matches, and there is not much more detail in your description. From a review of the Rachel Pollack collection Burning Sky by Emily Streight at Rain Taxi Review:

Pollack loves to play with form: "Is Your Child Using Drugs? Seven Ways to Recognize a Drug Addict" creates a discomfiting fictional universe using questions from a propagandistic anti-drug pamphlet as cues;

The story is in the anthology Space Odyssey which can be borrowed (for free but registration required) from the Internet Archive. I'm not about to read it, but here is an excerpt:

SPEECH: Does your child's speech pattern conform with his customary actions? Look for slurring, difficulty of speech, as if drunk.

Allan and Gloria Rumsilver looked at their son standing in the doorway. The moonlight, bright to excess as it had been for nine nights, flared about Dominiq's head like an unstable aura, causing Allan to squint his eyes, then look away. 'Since when do you ring the bell?' he asked. 'You lose your key again?' Dominiq's mouth twisted. His facial muscles pushed up his nostrils to give his contorted lips, his bare teeth more room. His tongue curled and stretched with seeming indolence, experimenting in a private sexuality as it sought a proper cavity or surface to make a proper sound. He coughed, then jerked back his head. Allan and Gloria could see tremors ripple his skin's exposed areas. A moment later Dominiq squeezed between his parents and lurched upstairs (his arm muscles alone under reasonable control), only to stop at the landing and say, his back to them, 'You must know. You must find out. Something must be done.'

CHEMICAL AROMAS: Do you smell strange aromas, like glue, Carbona, Magic Marker? Does your child's breath smell of any strange chemical odour?

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  • The Internet Archive has New Dimensions 6 but someone has it borrowed right now.
    – DavidW
    Commented Oct 16, 2023 at 0:52
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    And it looks like there are three copies of Space Odyssey all of which are available.
    – DavidW
    Commented Oct 16, 2023 at 0:57
  • @DavidW Thanks for the Space Odyssey link.
    – user14111
    Commented Oct 16, 2023 at 1:30
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    I have a hardcover copy of Space Odyssey which I bought for peanuts as ex-library stock. It has a completely ridiculous number of classic short stories in it for being one anthology book. Most anthologies have some filler, but that one doesn't. I really suggest people keeping an eye out if one comes up anywhere.
    – Graham
    Commented Oct 16, 2023 at 9:13
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    THAT"S IT! I remember this passage distinctly. Thank you! Commented Mar 2 at 1:41

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