You know prescription and over-the-counter medication abuse is a serious problem, but how much do you really know about the nation’s fastest growing drug problem?

True or False? Prescription medications are among the top three most commonly abused drugs among teenagers.

True. According to the 2009 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), alcohol and marijuana are the drugs most often abused by adolescents, followed by prescription medications (particularly opiates like Vicodin and OxyContin). Government studies show that more than six million teens and adults have abused a prescription drug and nearly 2.5 million children have gotten high by abusing cough medicine.

True or False? Most teenagers get their prescription drugs from family or friends.

True. Multiple surveys show that the majority of people who abuse prescription drugs obtain them from family and friends. Some find the medications in the family medicine cabinet or at a friend’s house while others may buy or steal drugs from the people closest to them.

True or False? Medicines can be safely disposed of by flushing them down the toilet or throwing them in the trash.

False. Flushing medications down the toilet or tossing them in the garbage can pollute the water and soil and become a safety hazard. LockTheCabinet.com, a prescription drug abuse awareness campaign, recommends that families put locks on their medicine cabinets or store prescription and over-the-counter medications in a lockbox.

If there are unused and unwanted medications lying around the house, bring them to a designated drop-off location during one of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s National Prescription Drug Take Back events. If you decide to throw medications in the garbage, be sure to follow the guidelines for proper prescription drug disposal.

True of False? Teens learn everything they need to know about the dangers of prescription drugs at school.

False. Adolescents gain only a basic knowledge of the dangers of prescription drug abuse at school. In fact, without parental involvement, teens are more likely to get their facts – which are often inaccurate – from their friends.

True or False? Overdose is only a risk for people who abuse street drugs like heroin or cocaine.

False. Prescription drugs pose a severe overdose risk, particularly when taken in large doses or mixed with other drugs. In 2009, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that prescription drug overdoses were the leading cause of preventable death in the U.S., moving ahead of car accidents for the first time in history.

True of False? Parents should educate their teens about the risks of medicine abuse, but friends end up having more influence.

False. During adolescence, young people are strongly influenced by their peers, but studies show that parents remain the most powerful force in a teen’s life. Studies show that teens who learn about the risks of drugs from their parents are 50 percent less likely to use drugs.

You know to keep OTC and prescription medications out of reach. LockTheCabinet.com also recommends taking the following steps to safeguard your family:

• Educate yourself about OTC and prescription drug abuse.
• Talk openly and often with your teens about the risks of abusing medications.
• Maintain an active presence in your child’s life.
• Promote positive self-esteem by providing unconditional love and support.
• Get to know your teen’s friends and their parents.
• Be a strong role model by using medications responsibly.

The message of National Medicine Abuse Awareness Month is that OTC and prescription medication abuse can have serious consequences. Although many teenagers believe prescription drugs are safer than street drugs, when taken other than as prescribed, the results can be fatal. Be part of the solution by getting educated about the prevalence of medicine abuse and its associated dangers, and sharing that knowledge with your children, family and friends.

A new study by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) has found that middle and high school students across the U.S. are increasingly using illicit substances, with a particular rise in marijuana use. Based on the results of NIDA’s 2010 Monitoring the Future (MTF) survey, which assessed 46,482 students from both public and private schools, daily marijuana use was up across all grade levels measured (8th, 10th, and 12th grades). For example, past-year marijuana use rose among participants from all three grade levels in 2010. While the rate of teenage cigarette consumption has shown to plateau across all grade levels in recent years, the rate of twelfth graders’ past-month marijuana use, on the other hand, now exceeds their rate of cigarette use (21.4% vs. 19.2%). Teenagers’ daily marijuana use saw the most significant incline. In 2009, daily marijuana use was 1.0% for eighth graders, 2.8% for tenth graders, and 5.2% for twelfth graders; yet by 2010, these percentages increased to 1.2%, 3.3%, and 6.1% respectively.

The Office of National Drug Control Policy described this rise in teenage marijuana use as the result of increased publicity over the legalization of marijuana. Medical marijuana, now legalized in a dozen states and the District of Colombia, may send mixed messages to teenagers regarding the dangers of marijuana use. In a press release on Tuesday, NIDA Director Nora D. Volkow stated that more and more research is revealing that marijuana use can cause cognitive impairment to users—such as affected motor skills and learning and judgment abilities—particularly to teens whose brains are not yet fully developed. Also, studies have found that one in six adults who are currently addicted to marijuana began using the drug in their adolescence. However, the MTF survey showed that today’s teens perceive marijuana as less harmful than previous generations did. About 57.2% of tenth graders reported that marijuana smoking is harmful, down from 59.5% in 2009. Likewise, twelfth graders’ attitudes towards marijuana’s harmfulness dropped from 52.4% in 2009 to 46.8% in 2010. Eighth graders also showed a substantial decrease in their disapproval rating of marijuana use. With growing media emphasis over medical marijuana’s use to help treat conditions such as cancer, glaucoma, and HIV/AIDS, as well as the debate whether to legalize the seemingly ‘less harmful’ substance for adults, teenagers are now regarding the substance as a more acceptable drug of use.

Also on the rise is the illicit use of other drugs perceived as ‘harmless’ or legitimate, such as prescription medications and MDMA—otherwise known as ecstasy. In light of teenagers’ increased use of marijuana, eighth grade participants also admitted to having a higher rate of illicit drug use, rising from 14.5% in 2009 to 16% in 2010. Compared to 2009, almost twice as many eighth graders were found to have used ecstasy within the past year (1.3% vs. 2.4%). Tenth graders displayed a similarly rising trend in ecstasy use, from 3.7% in 2009 to 4.7% in 2010. The rate of teenagers’ nonmedical use of prescription drugs, too, remained high in this year’s survey. While Vicodin abuse was down from 9.7% to 8% among high school seniors, the survey found OxyContin abuse by seniors remained steady at 5.1%. Out of the ten most abused prescription drugs reported by teenagers, six of them were either prescribed or received over-the-counter. The majority of teens admitted to receiving, purchasing, or stealing these prescriptions drugs from a friend or family member.

Teenagers’ rising acceptance, perceived harmlessness, and accessibility of marijuana are three strong predictors of future abuse. In midst of the political debate over adult use of medical or legalized marijuana, NIDA emphasizes the need for parents and educators to intervene and prevent risky behavior among teens, including the use of marijuana and other substances. Not only can regular marijuana use stunt their cognitive growth during their formative years, but it also poses a risk for addiction and long-term impairment.

NIDA’s annual MTF survey was conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Source: USA Today, Rita Rubin, U.S.: More Teens Smoke Marijuana Than Cigarettes, December 15, 2010

Jennifer R. Havens, Ph.D., M.P.H., of University of Kentucky College of Medicine, Lexington, and colleagues looked at data collected from 17,872 individuals between the ages of 12 to 17 who participated in the 2008 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, and found that 52 percent lived in urban areas, 51 percent were male, and 59 percent were white.

Illicit drug use was the same among urban and rural youth (including marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and hallucinogens), but 13 percent of rural youth reported abusing prescription drugs compared with 10 percent of urban youth. The researchers also found that rural teens were more likely to have abused pain relievers or tranquilizers (11.5 percent versus 10.3 percent and 3.5 percent versus 2.5 percent, respectively).

The researchers took into account sociodemographic factors, health status, and the use of other substances, but still found that rural teens were 26 percent more likely than other adolescents to report abusing prescription drugs. One reason for this may be that drugs like heroin aren’t as readily available in rural areas as are prescription drugs.

Rural teens with poorer health, depression, or other substance abuse were more likely to abuse prescription drugs. Teens who lived in a household with two parents were 32 percent less likely to abuse prescription drugs, which suggests that family involvement may be integral to reducing prescription drug abuse. Teens who were enrolled in school were also less likely to abuse the drugs.

The authors noted that the cultural, structural, and social aspects of rural living can affect the prevalence of drug use and exacerbate its consequences. Being more isolated in a rural environment can also impact treatment, such as mental health and substance abuse services, as resources may be in short supply. They concluded that more research should be done to look at the casual mechanisms surrounding prescription drug abuse among adolescents in rural settings to help develop effective interventions for this population.

Source: Science Daily, Non-Medical Prescription Drug Use More Common Among Rural Teens Than City Dwellers, November 1, 2010

A new report in the Auburn Journal shows that this drug is attractive not only because of its effectiveness in treating pain, but also its ability to stabilize moods and as a tool for relaxation or to lower anxiety.

It is the mood altering effects of the drug that often cause it to be used recreationally. The drug also delivers a warm, fuzzy feeling, which leads to dizziness, fatigue and severe headaches. In more extreme cases the drug can also cause circulatory collapse, shallow breathing and even death.

The risk of overdose can be extraordinarily high with OxyCodone simply because you never know how much you are taking. And, if a tolerance builds, the user is at even more risk.

“OxyCodone is prescribed based on how much pain you are in and your weight. When you take someone else’s medication that is made for them, you’re always putting yourself at risk,” said one local pharmacist in the Auburn Journal.

The rise in use of OxyCodone is also a result of its lucrative street value. When sold on the street, this drug can be valued at as much as $80. Not only has the street market driven use, it also drives individuals to get a prescription in order to sell on the street for a profit.

A study completed in 2005 found that one in 20 high school students admitted to either knowing or having tried the drug. When the study was done again in 2009, one in 10 knew someone involved with the drug.
 

More teens also are getting high on prescription pain pills and attention-deficit drugs, according to 8th-, 10th- and 12th-graders surveyed by the University of Michigan for the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

The Associated Press reports that the increase of teens smoking pot is partly because the national debate over medical use of marijuana can make the drugs seem safer to teenagers, researchers said. In addition to marijuana, fewer teens also view prescription drugs and Ecstasy as dangerous, which often means more could use them in the future, said White House drug czar Gil Kerlikowske.

The "continued erosion in youth attitudes and behavior toward substance abuse should give pause to all parents and policy-makers," Kerlikowske said.

"These latest data confirm that we must redouble our efforts to implement a comprehensive, evidence-based approach to preventing and treating drug use," Kerlikowske, the director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, said in remarks prepared for his Monday speech at the National Press Club in Washington.

Marijuana use, while much lower than the peak levels of the late 1990s, has increased. According to the study of 47,097 students, 20.6 percent of 12th graders said they used it within the past month, compared with 19.4 percent in 2008 and 18.3 percent in 2006. Among 10th-graders, pot use in the past month rose to 15.9 percent this year from 13.8 percent in 2008.

In the past year, the share of eighth-graders who smoked pot was 11.8 percent, compared with 10.9 percent in 2008. Tenth-graders’ use was 26.7 percent this year and 23.9 percent in 2008. The percentage of 12th-graders was 32.8 percent compared with 32.4 percent in 2008.

"The upward trending of the past two or three years stands in stark contrast to the steady decline that preceded it for nearly a decade," said Lloyd Johnston, who has directed the annual survey since it started in 1975.

A group backing legalization of marijuana said the figures show the futility of trying to ban pot, rather than regulate its use.

"Clearly, regulation of tobacco products has worked to curb access by teens, and it’s time to apply those same sensible policies to marijuana," said Bruce Mirkin, spokesman for the Washington-based Marijuana Policy Project.

Marijuana’s growing popularity is tied to how risky teens think it is. The percentage of eighth-graders who saw a "great risk" in occasionally smoking marijuana fell from 50.5 percent in 2004 to 48.1 percent in 2008 and 44.8 percent this year. The perceived danger of using Ecstasy once or twice fell among eighth-graders, from 42.5 percent in 2004 to 26 percent in 2009.

"When the perception of the danger goes down, in the following years you see an increase in use," said National Institute on Drug Abuse Director Nora Volkow.

Volkow said teens falsely believe that it’s less dangerous to get high on prescription drugs "because they’re endorsed by the medical community." But she said prescription narcotics like OxyContin and Vicodin are highly addictive and can act as gateways to heroin, a cheaper high.

Use of both prescription narcotics rose among this year’s 10th-graders, with 8.1 percent saying they had used Vicodin in the past year compared with 6.7 percent in 2008. For OxyContin, the figure rose to 5.1 percent from 3.6 percent.

Recreational use of the attention-deficit drug Ritalin was lower than five years ago. But the attention-deficit drug Adderall had figures similar to those for Ritalin at its peak, which for 12th-graders was around 5 percent.

Alcohol remained the most widely used illicit substance among teens, with 43.5 percent of 12th-graders reporting drinking alcohol in the past month. That’s a little change from the same period last year, but down from 52.7 percent in 1997—a year that showed high percentages of substance abuse. All three grades reported drops in binge drinking from 2004 to 2009.

Cigarette use continued its dramatic drop from a decade ago. In 1997, 19.4 percent of eighth-graders reported smoking within a month. That fell to 6.8 percent last year and 6.5 percent this year. The rate for 12th-graders dropped from 36.5 percent in 1997 to 20.1 percent this year.

"There’s not going to be much further improvement unless policies change," such as higher taxes to discourage kids on a budget and further limits on public smoking, Johnston said.

Only 2.4 percent of this year’s 12th-graders said they’d ever used methamphetamine, down from 2.8 percent in 2008 and 8.2 percent in 1999.

"Calls related to teenaged victims of prescription ADHD medication abuse rose 76%, which is faster than calls for victims of substance abuse generally and teen substance abuse," writes researcher Jennifer Setlik, MD, of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and colleagues.

ADHD affects between 8% and 12% of children and 4% of adults worldwide, and there has been a significant increase in the sale of stimulant drugs designed to treat the condition in recent years.

Overall, researchers say the sharp rise in ADHD drug abuse mirrored a similar increase in the prescription numbers among teens, but the abuse of certain types of ADHD drugs is outpacing sales.

Dr. Alanna Levine, a pediatrician and spokesperson for the American Academy Of Pediatrics, stopped by CBS’s The Early Show to discuss this alarming trend. "I think we’re seeing more and more use of ADHD drugs in general because there’s more awareness," she said. "But the more we prescribe the medication, the more it is out there in the community, and the more there is a risk for abuse."

When teens not affected by ADHD take drugs such as Ritalin or Adderall, they experience a performance enhancing high and are able to study longer or stay up later. Some teens are using the drugs for their appetite suppressant qualities to lose weight.

Levine explained that many kids get the medication from their friends, and urged parents to be on the lookout. The drugs can be dangerous if you don’t need them, according to Levine, who explained that kids are typically screened for heart disease and get an EKG before getting the prescription.

The University of Michigan’s “Monitoring the Future” study surveyed 48,025 students from 403 secondary schools. The researchers found that the use of OxyContin, a powerful painkiller, was slightly higher this year for all three grades. At least one in 20 high school seniors has tried the narcotic in the past year.

Wilson Compton, division director at the National Institute on Drug Abuse, said he was troubled by the results. “Prescription drugs remain at high and very concerning levels,” he said. “We need to do a better job of communicating the risks of these prescription drugs and protecting youth from what can be dangerous in the long run.”

The study also found, however, that the proportion of 8th graders reporting illicit drug use in the past 12 months dropped by nearly 50 percent, from 24 percent in 1996 to 13 percent in 2007. The decline was less dramatic for 10th graders, from 39 percent in 1997 to 28 percent. Use declined among 12th graders from 42 to 36 percent in the same period.

The use of alcohol by teens has also declined since the mid-1990s. Smoking rates continued a gradual decline in grades 8 and 10 in 2007.

Among those drugs used less by teens are marijuana and amphetamines. Cocaine, however, was the one stimulant that did not show a decline in usage this year. Though its use peaked in the late 1990s and then declined for a year or two, it has been relatively steady in recent years. Between 2 and 5 percent of students in each of the three grades surveyed reported using cocaine during the previous year.

MDMA, or ecstasy, showed signs of increased use. Though the popularity of the drug plummeted in the early 2000s, use has begun to increase again in the upper grades.

“There is evidence here of this drug beginning to make a comeback,” wrote Lloyd Johnston, a University of Michigan researcher and principal investigator of the study.

The study also looked at the use of over-the-counter cough and cold medications taken to get high. The cough suppressant dextromethorphan is an active ingredient in most of these medications.

Usage rates of dextromethorphan, which ranged from 4 percent in 8th grade to 7 percent in 12th grade, have remained fairly steady during the last decade, with a slight decrease this year among 12th graders.

“There is little evidence yet of much improvement,” Johnston wrote.

In eastern Idaho, more prescription drug overdoses in high school patients occurred in 2008-2009 than ever before, according to Dr. Randall Fowler of Portneuf Medical Center’s West Campus emergency room. He estimates that in recent months at least six people in their teens or early 20s have come into the emergency room with serious overdoses.

“It’s like Russian roulette because when you are pawing through a bowl full of different pills, capsules, and tablets, you’re not sure what medication you’re going to get,” Fowler said. “Whether it is something that you maybe have an allergy to, either a known allergy or an unknown allergy, you don’t know what the side effects are. You don’t know what the prescription was meant to treat, and especially if you bind it with alcohol or other drugs it can be lethal.”

Fowler also said that the emergency room is seeing a lot more intentional misuse of prescription mediction, including Vicodin, hydrocodone, and occasionally methadone and morphine.

Bannock Country Sherrif Lorin Nielsen is seeing the same problem in the county and at Marsh Valley High School, where he has a school resource officer stationed. “We have found that it doesn’t make a difference between rural or urban. It seems that these prescription painkillers have really popped up in the last two or three years to where we’re seeing more and more kids selling and using prescription drugs because they are easier to obtain,” Nielsen said.

Jim Harrell, director of student support services for School District 25, said that the district works closely with the local police department to monitor kids while they are in school, but that the best way to reduce prescription drug abuse is to educate parents, because they are often unknowingly supplying their kids with the drugs.

A number of kids also get involved because they are trying to make money. School Resource Officer Forest Peck said that kids will come to school with four or five pills they took from their parents with them intention of selling them for $20. Idaho law says that anyone 14 and older who is caught selling drugs at or near a school will be charged as an adult with a felony. “Before you know it, they are labeled as a drug dealer,” Peck said.

1.) Monitor Medication. Nearly two-thirds of teens who have abused prescription medication have gotten it from friends and/or relatives, usually without their knowledge. Keep track of all your prescription medications, and make sure every family member’s prescriptions are kept in the same place so you can take inventory. This way you can easily notice if pills start disappearing. It’s also a good idea to talk to your teen’s friends’ parents about monitoring their own cabinets, as it’s likely that your teen will be over at their home and have access to the medicine cabinet.

2.) Dispose of Medication. Drugs that are no longer being used by anyone in the household are an easy way for teens to get their hands on medication without being caught. Keep track of all current medications and discard any that are no longer being used or are expired. Don’t just throw away the bottle, though; place the remaining pills in an opaque container with a secure lid and mix in something undesirable like coffee grounds, dirt, or cat litter. Then place the container in an opaque bag and discard.

3.) Secure Medication. As the medicine cabinet is the first place teens will look for prescription drugs, it’s a good idea to keep your medication in a less obvious, safer place. If you had a firearm in the house, you would lock that away—why not do the same with dangerous medications?

The Statesman Journal highlights the fact that teens are not just making an error in medication or dose – this use is intentional. The drugs are not only available in home medicine cabinets, they can also be easily purchased on the Internet.

Even more alarming is the fact that teens are learning more about the possibilities associated with these drugs through television advertisements. The Internet also provides a wealth of information regarding the use and mixing of these drugs for a “personalized effect”. Unfortunately, since these drugs have a medical use, teens often believe that they are less risky than illegal drugs.

As the use and abuse of these drugs are life-threatening, the risks must be reduced. Parents can help to reduce the risks by setting clear expectations, maintaining an inventory of the prescription drugs in the home, monitoring Internet use, and keeping the line of communication open by talking to their kids about the risks of abusing prescription or OTC drugs.

The misinformation that surrounds the use and abuse of prescription drugs certainly lends to the growing problem. Whether it is parents not understanding the risk or teens assuming they cannot be hurt, the misinformation can lead to death. Proper education on both sides can go a long way to eliminating the risk for a teen within the home.