US Teens Risking Lives by Abusing Prescription Drugs
Posted on December 1, 2009According to a survey by the Partnership for a Drug Free America, one in five teens has experimented with legal medication at least once. Concerns are also growing that rising numbers of young people are being admitted to hospitals after overdosing.
"They are experimenting with anything, with everything," said Special Agent Gerard McAleer of the Drug Enforcement Agency. "We’re finding more and more experimentation with our youth in America; they are going into medicine cabinets at home and taking them from there."
The BBC reports that this is how it started for 16-year-old Henry Walkdale from New York, who is now in treatment at a drug rehabilitation program.
"Prescription drugs are definitely much easier to find,” he said. "You can get fake scripts [prescriptions], there are people that literally sell them out of the back of hospitals if you know the right neighborhoods to go to."
Henry’s addiction got worse when he was taken to the hospital with a leg injury.
"They were keeping me full of painkillers and when I got out they gave me a prescription and so I just started popping them like candy," he admitted. "I’d steal from my friends’ parents cabinets, I’d do whatever I could to get that fix."
Some teens just start abusing prescription drugs to get high. "They are thinking about it in a very tactical and almost strategic way," said Steve Pasierb, president of the Partnership for a Drug Free America.
"The drugs that grab the headlines are the prescription pain relievers. But what we know from the research is it’s stimulants, sedatives, psychoactives, anti-depressants,” he added.
"Pharm parties" are also raising concern. "We see it all the time. The price of admission is a handful of pills. They all go in the bowl, they pass the bowl around, and they pop (the pills) to see the effect," said Pasierb.
Although the recent deaths of celebrities like Michael Jackson, Anna Nicole Smith, and Heath Ledger have highlighted the dangers of prescription drug abuse, there is no sign that these high-profile cases are deterring people from abusing medication.
McAleer says it’s too easy for teenagers to get access to the drugs. "In the wrong hands it is very dangerous," he said. "We’ve asked people to talk to their kids, look in the medicine cabinet, take an inventory, secure the medicines you need to keep and dispose of those that have just been sitting there."
