Log in

View Full Version : Study: Teen Girls Often Abuse Prescription Drugs


drdĒv€
05-06-2007, 10:59 PM
Report Shows Boys Abuse For High, Girls Abuse For Emotional Reasons

POSTED: 6:54 pm CDT May 6, 2007
UPDATED: 7:17 pm CDT May 6, 2007

OMAHA, Neb. -- A new U.S. government report raises concerns about prescription drug abuse, especially among teenage girls.

The report shows that nearly one girl in 10 reports abusing a prescription drug to get high in the past year. For teen boys, the number is slightly lower at 7.5 percent.

Prescription drugs are strictly regulated and designed to help heal, but they also have the power to destroy.

"I couldn't do anything without it, and I was sick of being powerless," said an 18-year-old, who is in rehabilitation trying to break his addiction to prescription drug abuse.

He wanted to remain anonymous, and said the drugs had stolen his life.

"I wasn't going to school. I didn't have a job. I didn't have anything. I was basically just being there," he said.

He said he knows others who are also caught in the trap of addiction.

"I know a lot of people, a lot of my friends are in dire need of help because of that," he said.

Drug counselors at Journeys Child Saving Institute said 60 percent of the children they treat have abused prescription drugs.

In March, a 14-year-old girl at Omaha's Mercy High School was arrested on suspicion of selling prescription drugs. A 17-year-old was arrested for illegal possession of pills, including Ritalin. Two other teens were released.

In February, four Bellevue East High School students were arrested for selling Tylenol with codeine and Percocet on school grounds, police said.

"Last February, two Westside Middle School students were arrested when drugs like Naproxen, Robitussin and the stimulant Concerta were found in their lockers, authorities said.

"Is there good money in it? Yes, there is," said a 17-year-old from rural Nebraska who said she sold sleeping pills for $10 a piece.

She said demand was high.

"People will take sleeping pills and force themselves to stay awake and kind of makes you hallucinate," she said.

The girl said she was prescribed pills as she struggled to get off methamphetamine.

That is one way teens get the drugs, counselors said. Sometimes they make up symptoms to get the prescription from a doctor. Other times, they take the drugs from their parents, or some steal them out of a someone's medicine cabinet.

Journeys counselors Janet Sigerson said there's a misconception that these pills don't pose a risk.

"There's something about a prescription drug in your subconscious, that because it's written and prescribed by a doctor, they assume it's safe and it's OK to take," Sigerson said.

Sigerson said prescription drugs carry the same dangers as illegal drugs.

"If you're an asthmatic and you take a drug that causes your respiratory system to slow down, you may well have taken a drug that's lethal for you, and everyone's different," she said.

Counselors said it's important for parents to recognize warning signs of abuse, which may include falling grades and mood swings.

"Just being shady, not looking at them, not being around the parents, always trying to get away," the teen in rehab said. "Not looking them in the eye. I couldn't look my parents in the eye for the longest time."

All of the addicted teens who spoke with KETV NewsWatch 7 said they wished their parents would have known what to watch for.

In the new government report, analysts noted that while boys abuse prescription drugs for a high, most girls reported using the drugs to increase confidence, cope with problems or lose weight.

http://www.ketv.com/news/13266548/detail.html

Deadhead420
05-06-2007, 11:27 PM
"Last February, two Westside Middle School students were arrested when drugs like Naproxen, Robitussin and the stimulant Concerta were found in their lockers, authorities said.

Naproxen? That's just a headache medicine... wtf?

Unnamed
05-06-2007, 11:44 PM
Originally posted by Deadhead420@May 6 2007, 11:27 PM
"Last February, two Westside Middle School students were arrested when drugs like Naproxen, Robitussin and the stimulant Concerta were found in their lockers, authorities said.

Naproxen? That's just a headache medicine... wtf?
.