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04-22-2005, 11:49 PM
Study: Teens raiding the medicine cabinet
11:32 PM PDT on Thursday, April 21, 2005
By BRADLEY WEAVER and DOUGLAS QUAN / The Press-Enterprise
Tips for Parents
The Partnership for a Drug-Free America recommends that parents:
Learn what medications children are abusing.
Know what prescription drugs teenagers are using.
Discuss the issue of drug abuse with your children.
Ask your doctor if any medications prescribed for your family have a potential for abuse.
Pay attention to quantities of prescription drugs and over-the-counter medications at home.
Keep medications out of reach and out of the medicine cabinet.
Scoring prescription drugs was easy for Brian David Hall.
The 17-year-old Alessandro High School student said he started popping pills at 12 years of age, paying $2 to $3 a pill
"I didn't have to do anything spectacular to get them," said Brian, who is undergoing court-ordered rehabilitation at Valley-Wide Outreach Services in San Jacinto.
Two years ago, Brian overdosed on Coricidin, a powerful antihistamine commonly called Triple-C. He took 12 of the pills, blacked out after violent convulsions and woke up in a shower.
"A lot of kids don't see them as drugs, because they are seeing them in stores or being prescribed to their parents."
A study released Thursday concludes that an alarming number of the nation's teenagers are raiding their parents' medicine cabinets for prescription drugs.
DeeAnn Bradley / The Press-Enterprise
Alessandro High School student Brian Hall, 17, is in rehabilitation for prescription painkiller use. Brian holds a bottle containing crushed Vicodin, left, and a bag containing OxyContin capsules turned over to counselors by clients in the program.
"For the first time, our national study finds that today's teens are more likely to have abused a prescription painkiller to get high than they are to have experimented with a variety of illegal drugs - including Ecstasy, cocaine, crack and LSD," said partnership Chairman Roy Bostock. "In other words, 'Generation Rx' has arrived."
Marijuana and alcohol may still remain the drugs of choice, but there are signs that more teens are being lured to prescription drugs, believing they are easier to obtain, safer and cheaper than illegal drugs. It's not just about plucking the drugs from the medicine cabinet, either, as teens say they are getting drugs online, from friends or during trips to Mexico.
Educators and police said they were concerned about the study's findings.
"If one kid shows up with a bottle of pills from home, other kids find out it gets them high, and they'll ask for them, even offer to buy them," said Anthony Conrad, a police officer who also works at Murrieta Valley High School. "It's a problem in many areas, and it should be a wake-up call for parents."
Problem Not New to Schools
Over the past few years, some Inland schools have faced the problem head-on.
Twelve Indio Middle School seventh-graders were suspended recently after passing around prescription muscle relaxants belonging to a parent. In Temecula two years ago, six Chaparral High School students were disciplined after being caught under the influence of prescription drugs. Two of those students were sent to the hospital. In Hemet, at least six students were hospitalized after overdosing on an over-the-counter cough syrup.
Students say the problem is widespread, and prescription drugs are often believed to be safer than illegal drugs because they are medically approved. The pills are sometimes crushed and snorted to accelerate the effect, teens said.
"I didn't realize how many teens use it," said Janelle Muņoz, a 16-year-old San Jacinto High School student who attributes the popularity of prescription drug abuse to easy access and the ability to get high quicker.
According to the study, the most popular prescription medication abused by teens was the narcotic Vicodin, with 18 percent reporting they had used it to get high. Another narcotic, OxyContin, and drugs for attention-deficit disorder such as Ritalin followed with one in 10 teens reporting they had tried them. About one in 11 teens admitted abusing over-the-counter drugs such as cough medicine.
The number of teens who smoke marijuana declined to 37 percent last year, compared with 42 percent six years earlier.
The findings are based on a 2004 survey of 7,300 teenagers nationally. The margin of error was 1.5 percent.
Fewer than half the teens said they saw "great risk" in experimenting with prescription medicines, according to the study.
"Ease of access" was cited as a major factor in trying the medications, with medicine cabinets at home or at a friends house a likely source, according to the non-profit Partnership for a Drug-Free America.
The partnership is a coalition of communications professionals analyzing drug-related attitudes among teens.
'We're Seeing a Trend'
Inland drug counselors said Thursday they were not surprised to hear the results of the study.
Rocky Hill, director of Hill Alcohol and Drug Treatment in Temecula, said more of the teenagers walking through his doors today -- about 30 percent - have experimented with pain medications.
"That's new, we're seeing a trend," he said.
Part of the problem is how easy it is for teens to get hold of the prescription pills, he said.
"Accessibility is easier than going to the liquor store," he said. It might start with teens going into their parents' or grandparents' medicine cabinets. Then they might buy the drugs off the Internet. Some travel to Mexico for medications.
Hill said teens often don't realize the dangers. They can get into car accidents because their judgment is skewed. And they can quickly overdose.
"The next thing they know, their respiration has decreased and they're no longer alive," Hill said.
Adolescents often feel they're invincible and don't realize how addictive prescription drugs can be, said Joe Aragon, director of outpatient services at San Jacinto-based Valley-Wide Outreach Services. Schools and parents need to stress to children the dangers of sharing medications with their peers, he said.
Parents also need to be more vigilant, he said. If a child's prescription gets refilled and a week later it's empty, parents need to ask questions.
"Kids will sell their own Ritalin at middle school," he said.
Students could face expulsion from school and criminal charges if they are under the influence or are caught selling prescription drugs on campus to other students, said Corona police Sgt. Neil Reynolds. A first offense would likely land that student in a drug-diversion program instead of court, he said.
Reynolds said his department has not seen a large problem with prescription-drug abuse among teens.
Robin Hogen, a spokesman for Purdue Pharma L.P., the company that manufactures OxyContin, said his company is aware that children may abuse the company's drug.
Purdue Pharma launched a campaign to educate 10- to 14-year-old children about the dangers of prescription drugs, he said. A company website, www.painfullyobvious.com, offers resources for parents, teachers and students. Last year, the company also sent informational pamphlets to 5 million students across the country, he said.
Internet pharmacies are one route for teens to illicitly obtain prescription drugs, Riverside pharmacist Rick Bodle said.
Bodle, who works at Raincross Pharmacy in downtown Riverside, said he knows of one area teenager who did just that -- ordered Vicodin using a credit card from a Florida Internet pharmacy.
The teen's parents did not discover what their child was up to until the third shipment mistakenly showed up at their door, he said. Earlier shipments had been sent to a post-office box, he said.
"He was just one of several kids in this group getting these drugs," Bodle said.
Bodle said he believes it is harder for teens to illegally buy drugs directly from in-town pharmacies. "We know our customers personally. We know most of the doctors," he said.
'You Never Know ...'
Traditionally, drug-awareness campaigns have focused on tobacco, alcohol and marijuana. But some schools are beefing up efforts to keep prescription drugs in check.
Many school districts send home parent handbooks, which state that students who take prescription medicines must leave them in the school's health office.
If students must bring prescription drugs on campus, "we document the dosage and oversee how often those drugs are used," said Narciso Cardona, assistant superintendent for San Bernardino City Unified School District.
"You never know what kids are doing with these medications," he said. "They may be abusing those drugs, but in terms of us catching them or knowing about it, we haven't seen any evidence of that."
Same is true in Temecula, where campus security guards say their biggest headaches are teens abusing alcohol and marijuana. Daniel Capuchino, a senior at West Valley High School, said he hasn't noticed any new trends in prescription drug use.
"I don't do it, but when I hear about it, it's always the same old alcohol and marijuana," he said.
Staff writers Herbert Atienza, Jamie Ayala and Douglas E. Beeman and The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Online at: http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories...ugs22.f025.html (http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_D_drugs22.f025.html)
11:32 PM PDT on Thursday, April 21, 2005
By BRADLEY WEAVER and DOUGLAS QUAN / The Press-Enterprise
Tips for Parents
The Partnership for a Drug-Free America recommends that parents:
Learn what medications children are abusing.
Know what prescription drugs teenagers are using.
Discuss the issue of drug abuse with your children.
Ask your doctor if any medications prescribed for your family have a potential for abuse.
Pay attention to quantities of prescription drugs and over-the-counter medications at home.
Keep medications out of reach and out of the medicine cabinet.
Scoring prescription drugs was easy for Brian David Hall.
The 17-year-old Alessandro High School student said he started popping pills at 12 years of age, paying $2 to $3 a pill
"I didn't have to do anything spectacular to get them," said Brian, who is undergoing court-ordered rehabilitation at Valley-Wide Outreach Services in San Jacinto.
Two years ago, Brian overdosed on Coricidin, a powerful antihistamine commonly called Triple-C. He took 12 of the pills, blacked out after violent convulsions and woke up in a shower.
"A lot of kids don't see them as drugs, because they are seeing them in stores or being prescribed to their parents."
A study released Thursday concludes that an alarming number of the nation's teenagers are raiding their parents' medicine cabinets for prescription drugs.
DeeAnn Bradley / The Press-Enterprise
Alessandro High School student Brian Hall, 17, is in rehabilitation for prescription painkiller use. Brian holds a bottle containing crushed Vicodin, left, and a bag containing OxyContin capsules turned over to counselors by clients in the program.
"For the first time, our national study finds that today's teens are more likely to have abused a prescription painkiller to get high than they are to have experimented with a variety of illegal drugs - including Ecstasy, cocaine, crack and LSD," said partnership Chairman Roy Bostock. "In other words, 'Generation Rx' has arrived."
Marijuana and alcohol may still remain the drugs of choice, but there are signs that more teens are being lured to prescription drugs, believing they are easier to obtain, safer and cheaper than illegal drugs. It's not just about plucking the drugs from the medicine cabinet, either, as teens say they are getting drugs online, from friends or during trips to Mexico.
Educators and police said they were concerned about the study's findings.
"If one kid shows up with a bottle of pills from home, other kids find out it gets them high, and they'll ask for them, even offer to buy them," said Anthony Conrad, a police officer who also works at Murrieta Valley High School. "It's a problem in many areas, and it should be a wake-up call for parents."
Problem Not New to Schools
Over the past few years, some Inland schools have faced the problem head-on.
Twelve Indio Middle School seventh-graders were suspended recently after passing around prescription muscle relaxants belonging to a parent. In Temecula two years ago, six Chaparral High School students were disciplined after being caught under the influence of prescription drugs. Two of those students were sent to the hospital. In Hemet, at least six students were hospitalized after overdosing on an over-the-counter cough syrup.
Students say the problem is widespread, and prescription drugs are often believed to be safer than illegal drugs because they are medically approved. The pills are sometimes crushed and snorted to accelerate the effect, teens said.
"I didn't realize how many teens use it," said Janelle Muņoz, a 16-year-old San Jacinto High School student who attributes the popularity of prescription drug abuse to easy access and the ability to get high quicker.
According to the study, the most popular prescription medication abused by teens was the narcotic Vicodin, with 18 percent reporting they had used it to get high. Another narcotic, OxyContin, and drugs for attention-deficit disorder such as Ritalin followed with one in 10 teens reporting they had tried them. About one in 11 teens admitted abusing over-the-counter drugs such as cough medicine.
The number of teens who smoke marijuana declined to 37 percent last year, compared with 42 percent six years earlier.
The findings are based on a 2004 survey of 7,300 teenagers nationally. The margin of error was 1.5 percent.
Fewer than half the teens said they saw "great risk" in experimenting with prescription medicines, according to the study.
"Ease of access" was cited as a major factor in trying the medications, with medicine cabinets at home or at a friends house a likely source, according to the non-profit Partnership for a Drug-Free America.
The partnership is a coalition of communications professionals analyzing drug-related attitudes among teens.
'We're Seeing a Trend'
Inland drug counselors said Thursday they were not surprised to hear the results of the study.
Rocky Hill, director of Hill Alcohol and Drug Treatment in Temecula, said more of the teenagers walking through his doors today -- about 30 percent - have experimented with pain medications.
"That's new, we're seeing a trend," he said.
Part of the problem is how easy it is for teens to get hold of the prescription pills, he said.
"Accessibility is easier than going to the liquor store," he said. It might start with teens going into their parents' or grandparents' medicine cabinets. Then they might buy the drugs off the Internet. Some travel to Mexico for medications.
Hill said teens often don't realize the dangers. They can get into car accidents because their judgment is skewed. And they can quickly overdose.
"The next thing they know, their respiration has decreased and they're no longer alive," Hill said.
Adolescents often feel they're invincible and don't realize how addictive prescription drugs can be, said Joe Aragon, director of outpatient services at San Jacinto-based Valley-Wide Outreach Services. Schools and parents need to stress to children the dangers of sharing medications with their peers, he said.
Parents also need to be more vigilant, he said. If a child's prescription gets refilled and a week later it's empty, parents need to ask questions.
"Kids will sell their own Ritalin at middle school," he said.
Students could face expulsion from school and criminal charges if they are under the influence or are caught selling prescription drugs on campus to other students, said Corona police Sgt. Neil Reynolds. A first offense would likely land that student in a drug-diversion program instead of court, he said.
Reynolds said his department has not seen a large problem with prescription-drug abuse among teens.
Robin Hogen, a spokesman for Purdue Pharma L.P., the company that manufactures OxyContin, said his company is aware that children may abuse the company's drug.
Purdue Pharma launched a campaign to educate 10- to 14-year-old children about the dangers of prescription drugs, he said. A company website, www.painfullyobvious.com, offers resources for parents, teachers and students. Last year, the company also sent informational pamphlets to 5 million students across the country, he said.
Internet pharmacies are one route for teens to illicitly obtain prescription drugs, Riverside pharmacist Rick Bodle said.
Bodle, who works at Raincross Pharmacy in downtown Riverside, said he knows of one area teenager who did just that -- ordered Vicodin using a credit card from a Florida Internet pharmacy.
The teen's parents did not discover what their child was up to until the third shipment mistakenly showed up at their door, he said. Earlier shipments had been sent to a post-office box, he said.
"He was just one of several kids in this group getting these drugs," Bodle said.
Bodle said he believes it is harder for teens to illegally buy drugs directly from in-town pharmacies. "We know our customers personally. We know most of the doctors," he said.
'You Never Know ...'
Traditionally, drug-awareness campaigns have focused on tobacco, alcohol and marijuana. But some schools are beefing up efforts to keep prescription drugs in check.
Many school districts send home parent handbooks, which state that students who take prescription medicines must leave them in the school's health office.
If students must bring prescription drugs on campus, "we document the dosage and oversee how often those drugs are used," said Narciso Cardona, assistant superintendent for San Bernardino City Unified School District.
"You never know what kids are doing with these medications," he said. "They may be abusing those drugs, but in terms of us catching them or knowing about it, we haven't seen any evidence of that."
Same is true in Temecula, where campus security guards say their biggest headaches are teens abusing alcohol and marijuana. Daniel Capuchino, a senior at West Valley High School, said he hasn't noticed any new trends in prescription drug use.
"I don't do it, but when I hear about it, it's always the same old alcohol and marijuana," he said.
Staff writers Herbert Atienza, Jamie Ayala and Douglas E. Beeman and The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Online at: http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories...ugs22.f025.html (http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_D_drugs22.f025.html)