I know this may sound like a weird question, but I was hoping that someone may have information about salt peter.
I have a step son who is 14 and likes this girl who is 13, they are not allowed to date, but she is moving a couple blocks away at the end of the week, and I just know they are going to end up having sex one way or another.
We are constantly having to monitor him and where he goes and check to make sure that he is there. This girl, from what I understand is already been sexually active and thought she was pregnant before by another boy.
I just don’t know what to do, other than lock him in his room, to keep them from sneaking and being together.
Anyway, I was hoping someone would know if salt peter is safe and if so where it can be purchased from.
At this point I have no other ideas of what to do since I can’t control the girl that he likes and him both.
You want to chemically impair your CHILDS SEXUAL FUNCTION!!! OMFG! If you were my mom I would consider thanking you with a baseball bat.
Educate him, hell put a condom on him before he leaves for school, ground him till hes 30, but sheesh what the hell are you thinking.
Fact if he really wants to its going to happen, educating him in safe sex might be his only defense. If these to are some kind of regular thing you might want to approach her parents too, maybe something can be done on her end (insistence on condoms, birth control pills, depo shots, etc.)
Welcome to the Straight Dope Message Board, Beckyvs. As you may know, the inspiration for the SDMB is Cecil, Perfect Master, who knows everything worth knowing. In one of his columns, Does saltpeter suppress male ardor?, the Master comments that saltpeter is dangerous:
Rather than trying to slip a noxious substance into his food, why don’t you try talking with him. Rumour has it that dialogue with the youth is a good thing.
I don’t know how hard* it is to find saltpeter, but I understand that it has no real effect on a person’s sexual desires or ability to function anyway. Sorry.
On a non-General Questions note, although I can understand your desire to keep your son from having sex, I think that seeking to chemically inhibit his sexuality is, well, it’s just plain wrong. In my humble opinion, of course.
There are drugs out there that can produce the effect you’re after, but I don’t think any doctor with his, er, salt would give you a prescription.
Good luck with your situation!
Bad unintentional pun discovered on Preview, but left alone.
Also on Preview, I see that cynic beat me to posting the Snopes link that I was going to; I never even thought to look for info on this subject on the SDMB as Northern Piper did.
Either potassium nitrate or sodium nitrate can be referred to as salt peter. The idea that it has an effect on the libido apparently has no more foundation that the word association of “salt” and a slang term or “penis.”
Listen to what people here have told you and don’t have anything to do with it.
If Saltpeter doesn’t work out, I would suggest checking out the Straight Dope’s question for today. If that doesn’t work, I find that too much alcohol and pot keeps me down. Of course that might hurt his grades, but he’d make a bunch of new friends!
Hey, if they’re gonna be together then they’re gonna be together, best he knows how to go about it without introducing another member into the family (or worse). Besides, the sheer Embarassment value of talking with a parent about this will surely keep him thinking.
And I thought this was going to be a post about homemade gunpowder.
Wow. I never heard the saltpeter thing before. Isn’t saltpeter used for curing sausages? Unless I’m going nuts, I’m fairly certain at my family’s farm in Poland I’ve seen them using saltpeter in sausages, and also here in Hungary. Is this a Bad Thing?
Why would it be illegal? Some high schools in America since at least the early 1990s have had condoms accessible to their students. Research seems to point that teaching abstinence isn’t working, so may as well educate them and keep 'em safe. Critics say distributing condoms encourages sex. My opinion? Education and condom availablilty is the only reasonable option.
She ain’t a troll - she just didn’t get answers she was hoping for.
I think that ‘risk’ is something we have to live with, and we cannot get gurantees for everything…guarantees like magical salt peter, chasity belts, etc.
Fact is, she’ll need to take the reasonable approach and arm her kid with information, his inherent risks should he ignore her, and pay attention to what is going on…to really be there for him.
Raising a child has risks…many which can be managed or moderated, but not too many can be removed completely.
SEX: Junior has to act responsibly sans chemicals so that he can continue to make other important decisions in his life.
I take saltpeter daily, its one of the things in my toothpaste, Sensodyne. They use
its chemical name too. But I think the topic should be closed, there is something fishy about it.
I cannot believe some of you. I just asked a question, I know absolutely nothing about salt peter, someone just mentioned it to me, that is why I asked.
You have no idea what I have been through with my step son, I have raised him, he has ADD among many other problems that he suffers from.
We have talked about safe sex, condoms, refraining from sex, you name it, we’ve talked about it.
He is not your normal 14 year old boy, he has a lot of problems, and over the years I have found that no matter what you say or do he is going to do what he wants, he has a learning disability also, I try hard with him, I just don’t want him to mess up his life.
Like I said, I just asked a simple question, I know nothing about the stuff, I guess it’s alright for all the parents who go out and put their daughters on birth conrtol pills, but it’s really hard looking at options for a boy with my step son’s problems who is going to do what he wants.
Anyway thanks for all the ones who like to judge other people without knowing the situation or looking at themselves in the mirror.
Once again, you can’t deal with the risk. See, in seeking information and supplying limited background, the risk is that you were going to get answers based on what we know - the extra risk being that you might be offended.
Are you catching onto a pattern yet?
Ok? The people here have reinforced the danger of salt peter by being adamament about not using it, and backing that up with info and alternatives to reinforce the feedback, which is, “don’t use it”.
This is a message board, with people. Not a reference desk. A reference desk will leave you wondering somewhat.
Thanks to the personal touches added by people here, you have a much stronger feeling now about salt peter…no?
Comparisons to the pill are unfair, because the pill is much more documented and has a deeper and somewhat sounder history to reference. Salt peter is more alonf the lines of “controlling sexual function” whereas the pill is birth control.
In view of the extra information you posted Beckyvs, you’re better off seeing a doctor and/or child psychologist about the whole issue, rather than asking for advice on a public anonymous message board.
In fact you’re lucky you stumbled upon this particular board, where the answer has at least been thought about, you won’t find that many places on the internet.
I’m genuinely curious about this. What are these drugs’ names? Given the OP I should mention that I ask only for myself; I have no desire to medicate anyone else by force or trickery.