CNN/AP: Teen prescription drug abuse 'entrenched'

Teen prescription drug abuse 'entrenched'
Tuesday, May 16, 2006

NEW YORK (AP) -- Teen smoking and drinking continued to drop, but teenage abuse of prescription drugs has become "an entrenched behavior" that many parents fail to recognize, a survey released Tuesday showed.

For a third straight year, the Partnership for a Drug-Free America study showed that about 1 in 5 teens have tried prescription drug painkillers such as Vicodin or OxyContin to get high -- about 4.5 million teens. It also indicated that many teens feel experimenting with prescription drugs is safer than illegal highs.

Forty percent said prescription medicines were "much safer" than illegal drugs, while 31 percent said there was "nothing wrong" with using prescription drugs "once in a while." The study further found that 29 percent of teens believe prescription pain relievers are non-addictive....

***

Although this was the group's 18th annual survey, it marked only the third year of compiling figures on the abuse of legal drugs. In 2003, the study found 20 percent of teens had tried the prescription drugs Vicodin, OxyContin and Tylox. Over the next two years, the numbers remained fairly consistent.

(Partnership President and CEO Steve Pasierb) said it was a good sign that the prescription drug numbers had not increased, but warned parents that the source of drugs is now the family medicine cabinet more than any dealer. The study found 62 percent of teens said prescription pain relievers are easy to find at home. And 52 percent say prescription pain relievers are "available everywhere."...

http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/05/16/drug.survey.ap/index.html

Where are the conservative role models?

Oh, that's right—there aren't any.

:eyes:

It's *SO* much better to have them ingesting all sorts of chemicals.

Grrrrrrr.

Not that I think kids should be doing any drugs at all, it's just so screwed up that our priorities are so out of whack.

and make tones of profit. If you could pot would be legal and PFizer or Philip Morris would be selling it at every store in the
country.

And too sad for all of those suffering who would benefit from medical marijuana :(

Some of these kids have been raised on mood-altering medications, or their friends have been. This has created a ubiquity about these medications with kids: it's part of their everyday routine. The medications are always around and available.

Stop thinking of kids as a meat unit that needs to be drugged to the gills when he or she acts like, heaven forfend, a kid, and you might make a dent in this in a generation or so.

The fear mongers insisted we needed a cop to patrol the school because of the HORROR of POT SMOKING in the parking lots. So now we have a cop in the school ('student resource officer') so that THOSE kids get THE FEAR.

As was predictable, the horror of pot smoking in the parking lot stopped. Now we have an out of control prescription pill popping epidemic. Great. I am actually concerned about the health effects of pill popping. The sheeple of course still don't get it. The solution will be more Lawnorder. Dogs and locker searches will be next. Somebody's kids are going to jail. Some kids will have their lives wrecked. Wonderful. We are so enlightened.

Up until the end of my junior year, we had open campus. You could leave for lunch, and come back. Right off campus was "the corner" where kids went to smoke cigarettes and weed. I never went there, my brother would have kicked my butt if he ever had caught me there. The people in the neighborhood called the police repeatedly about it-the police set up surveillance, and in one of the last weeks of school that spring, they busted a bunch of kids for not just weed, but also found a suitcase full of blotter.

The school responded by immediately closing campus, so you could not leave without a pass. My senior year, some of those kids who smoked at the corner started doing speed instead, because it was easier to hide. Also, kids started drinking at school for some reason. I personally don't think it's any easier to hide in that environment than weed, but we may have had tolerant teachers, compared to today.

I wanna know...

Are they bored?

Are they depressed?

Are they just experimenting?

when I was a teen, I was too busy helping my mom and working to get into this stuff....

feeling moody? have a pill.

the drug barons/doctors love pill addicted patients. steady money.

drug barons/doctors love sick people. they don't look for cures, cause they would lose money.

I endured pressure for several years while my son was in elementary school to put him on Ritalin or some other medication for ADD.

What do we expect when we tell little kids, "Here, take this pill every day at school, it will help you be better able to cope and fit in."

They get the message that prescription drugs are safe and helpful. It doesn't help that pain medications are over-prescribed to adults without proper warnings. My cousin's husband got addicted to Oxycontin very quickly when he had knee surgery. He said it takes away all desire to do anything except get more Oxycontin. He lost a bunch of weight and suddenly realized that it was because the Oxy was killing his desire to eat. No Dr. ever warned him that he needed to take it very carefully and get off of it as soon as possible.

In our town, a local organization started an informational campaign to let parents know that they should be locking up their prescription drugs the same way they would lock up a handgun in the house if they have kids or teens. It's sad, but necessary.

Boy, are they confused.