Oregon Discovers Prescription Drug Abuse Problem

May 21, 2009 Source-ABC News

MEDFORD, Ore. - The number of people abusing prescription pain medication is on the rise across the country.

Non-medical prescription drug-related deaths has risen by nearly 115-percent nationwide in the last few years.

"It's a little bit more difficult to catch people, because people will have a prescription for it, or maybe they obtained it fraudulently," says Sergeant Phil Eastman with the Medford Police Department.

Eastman supervises the Street Drug Unit with the Medford Police Department. He says the department sees at least one person a week trying to fill a fraudulent prescription, and the department is trying to crack down on prescription drug dealers.

"Those dealers are no different than meth dealers or heroine dealers," says Eastman.

Police admit it's hard to catch the dealers because many have a prescription themselves.

"Part of the attraction is the availability, the ease at which they can obtain the drugs," says Eastman.

Males ages 18-to-25 are the most common abusers of prescription drugs.

The MPD says it is even seeing school age kids abusing.

"I think it's no different that a kid finding dad's Jack Daniel's in the liquor cabinet, and he just takes a drink of it," says Eastman.

Medford's Addiction Recovery Center says prescription drug abuse is it's largest area of growth in the last year.

"It starts becoming an issue of taking medication just to relieve symptoms that are created by taking the medication. so it becomes a spiral," says ARC Operations Director Ed Burns.

ARC says it used to see an average of three to four people in its programs on a typical day. Now, it's anywhere from 12 to 15.

The MPD says the top two prescription drugs abused in the area are OxyContin and Methadone.

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Mexican Drug Cartels are the "New Mafia"

As Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told the Senate Judiciary Committee this month, Mexican cartels have infiltrated as many as 230 U.S. cities and now represent the most serious organized crime threat to the United States. In other words, the horse is already out of the barn.

According to the 2006 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 6 million people 12 and older used cocaine in the previous year, and 2.4 million were current users.

So the question is not so much how to stop the drugs from getting into the country as how to stop the drugs from getting inside of us. Reduce the demand and the supply takes care of itself.

Kerlikowske, the drug czar, said he wants to see more emphasis put on drug treatment and less on incarceration for nonviolent drug offenses. "We are not at war with people in this country," he told the Journal.

But a battle rages nonetheless. And he'll need to rally the troops. For the foe is cunning, capturing the brain. In a war, that would be the strategic high ground, and it must be retaken if we are to win.

via Courtland Miloy - Courtland Milloy: Drug Treatment - washingtonpost.com.


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Teen Drug Abuse on Rise

Police say teen drug abuse is on the rise in the Desert Southwest, as the number of hospital visits for drug abuse is increasing nationwide. Police say kids are having "pharming" parties; they show up with their pharmaceutical drugs, dump them in a bowl, and have at it. Yuma Police Department School Resource Officer Erick Resendiz held a presentation Wednesday night at City Hall as part of the Yuma Education Series. His message is if you abuse drugs, you're taking your life in your hands.

"We don't want to be responding to your house for an overdose when we can be responding to your house for advice on how to stop it," says Resendiz. Drugs can take a perfectly normal person, and turn them into a zombie. Resendiz says more kids in town are potentially throwing their future down the drain. He says police are seeing "over the counter and prescription drug abuse. Kids are trying any drug, if they have a drug that affects them somehow they think well if I take it more, can it help, will it help me." Resendiz also says more kids are inhaling toxins. Why are they doing drugs? To get high, deal with problems, change their body, help with school work, and a slew of other reasons. Resendiz says kids can find information on how to abuse drugs with the click of a mouse. "There's also experiment websites; sites they (kids) can go on-line that tell them how to abuse these drugs to get better highs safer. They even have rules like they're supposed to have a watcher; someone who can standby them when they're getting high in case something goes wrong." Resendiz says once a kid starts abusing drugs, they'll become a completely different person. Signs and symptoms of look out for: "Changes in behavior, changes in appearance, drastic things that don't normally happen in juveniles. Kids are giving away their belongings, they're losing an inappropriate amount of weight."

Resendiz says you can potentially save a loved ones life by getting them help before it's too late, and also studies show that if you talk to your child about not doing drugs, they'll be more likely to stay away from them. His advice for anyone is "don't even try them, don't even abuse them, don't take them any way, you shouldn't take them unless prescribed by a doctor. If you're already taking them get help, before you get past that addiction point where you can't get help anymore." For more information on Wednesday night's presentation, or for ideas on future presentation topics for the Yuma Educational Series, contact Officer Resendiz at the Yuma Police Department.

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Federal Government Survey - Prescription Drug Abuse is the Real Problem

Prescription Drug Abuse

Despite the prevalence of prescription drug abuse, especially pain releivers such as Oxycontin and Vicodin, most organizations.. including federal mandated DOT drug testing do not monitor their use.

A recent Federal Survey* says prescription drug abuse by teens and young adults continues to be a serious problem in the United States.

Today, teenagers are not using as much marijuana, cocaine, crack, LSD, and ecstasy as the adolescents of the 1960’s. American kids have a new favorite way to get high; painkillers and other prescription drugs are being abused at record levels.

This group of young adults has been given the name “Generation Rx.”

For the first time, national studies show that today’s teens are more likely to have abused a prescription painkiller than any street drug.

Surveys shows, that kids as young as 12 years old are trying or using prescription drugs -- to get high or for "self-medicating." The pharmaceuticals are often more available to kids than street drugs because they are often found in their very own homes. Also, pills may regarded as safer because they are professionally manufactured in a lab.

The survey also shows that painkillers are the most common pharmaceutical abused by teens with stimulant abuse more common among older teens and college students than younger teens.

Many young adults think these drugs are safe because they have legitimate uses, but taking them without a prescription to get high or to “self-medicate” can be as dangerous – and as addictive – as using street any drug they find on the streets.

*The Monitoring the Future survey – now in it’s 33rd year – is a series of classroom surveys of eight, tenth and twelfth graders. It is conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan under a grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the national Institutes of Health (NIH), and US Dept. of Health of Human Services (HHS).

The survey indicates a continuing high rate of prescription drug abuse among teens, with little change seen in the past six years. In fact, seven of the top 10 drugs abused were prescribed or purchased over the counter. The most common drugs used were Vicodin and Oxycontin.

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