Another Sad Tale of Prescription Drug Abuse
Posted on May 5, 2012In Quarryville, PA headlines have been grabbed by just the latest evidence of our nation’s epidemic problem with prescription drug abuse. It was there that a state senator’s son (just 20 years young) was handed down a felony drug charge for his role in the overdose fatality of 21 year old Andrew Glassmyer.
The senator’s son (Ryan Brubaker) has confessed to police that he raided his family’s medicine cabinet of more than a dozen (17 in fact) prescription painkillers (vicodin) which he then proceeded to give to Glassmyer in exchange for just over a half dozen (7) Xanax tablets. Xanax is a popular anti-anxiety medication. Two days later Glassmyer was discovered dead from a toxic overdose of multiple drugs.
Brubaker’s family posted his $25,000 bail and according to his father, is now in counseling. The senator assured the public that his son would be treated like anyone else coming before the court on such a charge, but asked in the meanwhile for his family to be granted a measure of privacy. The father declared his unwavering love for his son.
The problem of prescription drug abuse is staggering and, as this story reveals, no home is immune. Every family must take responsibility for emptying the home of unused prescription medications and needs to be alert to signs that a child could be ensnared by drug use. Lives are at stake.
