Prescription Drug Abuse

Montana Makes Effort to Prevent Prescription Drug Abuse

Posted by DrugFreeHomes in Drug Abuse Prevention, Prescription Drug Abuse on August 25th, 2010

In a previous post, we talked about the efforts to prevent prescription drug abuse, being done by Suffolk County in New York. In this post, we share the efforts of the state of Montana, currently ranked as third highest in the country in terms of teen abuse of prescription pain relievers, according to a feature on KRTV.com.

prescription drug abuseThe feature also shared that a new report indicated that 10 percent of the state’s teenagers have abused prescription medication in the past month, and mentioned that Montana is among the remaining seven states that still does not have a prescription drug registry or monitoring program.

Now, the state Attorney General’s office is sharing its efforts towards managing the state’s teen prescription drug abuse problem. After failing to secure the approval of the Montana Legislature for a prescription drug monitoring program twice, the feature said that the bill has been revamped and will be brought forward in the Legislature’s next session.

Siri Similie of the Attorney General’s office shared: “What they see on the street and what they are able to buy from drug dealers are pills. That is the most common drug they see and we also know that we are losing hundreds of Montanans every year to prescription drug overdose, mixed toxicity, and other complications that are side effects of misuse and abuse.”

Montana has also begun to organize prescription drug collection days, where residents are given the opportunity to dispose of prescription drugs in their homes properly. This is yet another way to prevent teenagers from gaining easy access to prescription drugs that may be abused. The next prescription drug collection day is scheduled for September 25.

No Comments

Suffolk County Announces “Operation Medicine Cabinet”

Posted by DrugFreeHomes in Prescription Drug Abuse on August 23rd, 2010

In several previous posts, we have talked about the dangers of prescription drug abuse and how the home medicine cabinet can sometimes become the unwitting source of drugs abused by teens. An interesting program has been developed and is being implemented in Suffolk County, in an effort to prevent such a possibility from happening.

prescription medicine abuseA feature on the Bayport – Blue Point Patch shared details regarding Operation Medicine Cabinet, a police district-wide program that provides parents with a means to get rid of unwanted, unused or expired medicines in their homes. A first in the state of New York, the program is open to residents 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

County executive Steve Levy shared: “Health and law enforcement professionals know that prescription opiate abuse is leading our young ones down the path to heroin use… ‘Operation Medicine Cabinet’ is designed to attack this epidemic at its earliest stage by reducing the risk that meds are unwittingly available to children and others who could use them in an unintended manner.”

The program will place secure receptacles in each of the seven police precincts in Suffolk County, where residents can anonymously drop off medicines. While this program is in no way the first medicine drop-off – other municipalities have also organized one-time medicine drop off days – it is the first program that provides residents with a permanent, round-the-clock, medicine drop off facility.

In attendance during the program’s unveiling were Levy, Suffolk Legislator Steven Stern, Police Commissioner Richard Dormer, Health Services Commissioner Dr. James Tomarken and Environment and Energy Commissioner Carrie Meek-Gallagher.

No Comments

Lindsay Lohan Misdiagnosed for Bipolar Disorder and Drug Addiction

Posted by DrugFreeHomes in Alcohol Abuse, Drug Addiction, Prescription Drug Abuse on August 21st, 2010

lindsay lohanDoctors who evaluated actress Lindsay Lohan during her stay at the Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital of UCLA at Westwood are in the opinion that the actress was misdiagnosed for bipolar disorder and drug addiction, according to a feature on the New York Daily News.

Ms. Lohan has stopped taking her medications, which included Dilaudid, Ambien, Adderall, Zoloft, Trazodone and Nexium, according to the report. She did not, however, show any unfavorable reactions, despite having to stop taking her medications. She also did not exhibit withdrawal symptoms to the absence of alcohol.

Another misdiagnosis for Ms. Lohan is having Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), which is the reason why she was taking Adderall; the doctors at UCLA say that she is not suffering from the condition. People such as Ms. Lohan, who apparently was taking Adderall unnecessarily, are reportedly susceptible to bizarre symptoms such as: “driving around until all hours of the morning … smoking heavily … tweeting … and texting all night long,” as shared by addiction specialist Dr. Joe Haraszti to gossip site TMZ.com.

No Comments

Teen Drug Abuse: Drug Poisoning

Posted by DrugFreeHomes in Drug Addiction, Prescription Drug Abuse on August 11th, 2010

Another area discussed by a helpful document that we shared in a couple of previous posts, which provided information regarding prescription drug abuse among teenagers, is drug poisoning.

drug poisoningA number of statistics were shared in the document, all related to the condition of drug poisoning. One is that unintentional drug poisoning led to over seven hundred thousand visits to the emergency room. A quarter of these visits sometimes lead to hospitalization or to a transfer to another facility.

In addition, there has been an increase in the occurrence of accidental death due to drug poisoning, which increased 68.3 percent over a period of five years, between 1999 and 2004. This is according to a report provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to Reuters Health. These incidents of drug poisoning, according to the document, are caused mainly by prescription drugs.

The CDC states further that drug poisoning follows motor vehicle accidents as the leading cause of death due to unintentional injury in the United States. For a specific demographic – that of people who are aged 35 to 54 years old – drug poisoning even surpassed motor vehicle accidents as a cause of death in the country. This is according to information provided by the Injury Center of the CDC.

All these statistics indicate that prescription drug abuse is a very real problem with dire consequences, and when left unchecked in teenagers, it can lead to the wasting away of a young life that would otherwise have reached greater heights.

No Comments

Teen Drug Abuse: Street Drugs versus Prescription Drugs

Posted by DrugFreeHomes in Prescription Drug Abuse, Raising Healthy Kids on August 4th, 2010

In a previous post, we shared a helpful document regarding prescription drug abuse in teenagers provided by the Drug Enforcement Administration. A portion of that document discusses the difference – and similarities – between street drugs and prescription drugs, and why teenagers may be drawn to the latter.

prescription drug abuse“Street drugs” is the sweeping term that is used to refer to abused substances that are categorized as illegal. This includes, among others, cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, and marijuana.

Prescription drugs are legal medicines prescribed to treat certain illnesses. According to Prescription for Disaster, most teenagers view the recreational use of prescription drugs as “safer” compared to street drugs. For one, prescription drugs are medicines, and can be obtained from doctors, pharmacies, friends and family members; there is no need to go to shady dealers in dimly-lit street corners.

There is also a way to find out the effects of prescription drugs; package inserts, advertisements and the Internet are able to provide this information.

This, of course, is a fallacy that needs to be corrected. While prescription drugs may have important medical applications, indiscriminate use and abuse is just as dangerous – and as illegal – as using street drugs.

Dr. Nida Volkow, the director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), described such an instance at a testimony before the House Government Reform Committee in 2006. Describing the effect of the prescription drug Ritalin, Dr. Volkow shares that the drug has a lot in common with cocaine. When taken orally as prescribed, and under the supervision of, a physician, it results in a gradual increase in the brain chemical dopamine. When taken intravenously, however, the increase of dopamine is rapid, which is the same as cocaine taken intravenously.

No Comments

Prescription Drugs and Teens: Why Do They Do It?

Posted by DrugFreeHomes in Prescription Drug Abuse, Raising Healthy Kids on July 30th, 2010

In a previous post, we shared the existence of a guide regarding teenagers and prescription drug abuse, provided by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). One of the things discussed in the document is how teenagers abuse prescription drugs, and why they turn to it.

teen prescription drug abuseData from a 2007 study called Monitoring the Future revealed that seven out of 11 drugs that were used by 12th graders to get high were medicines. Among them are cough medicines, inhalants, sedatives and tranquilizers.

In another report from 2007 entitled “Wasting the Best and the Brightest: Substance Abuse at America’s Colleges and Universities,” given by the National Center for Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University, it was shown that the proportion of college students who abused prescription drugs increased between 1993 and 2005. The percentage of increase was rather significant: 450 percent for tranquilizers such as Xanax and Valium; 343 percent for opioids such as Vicodin and OxyContin; 225 percent for sedatives such as Nembutal and Seconal; and 93 percent for stimulants such as Ritalin and Adderall.

Experts who weighed in on the reasons for prescription drug abuse among teenagers shared several insights. Teenagers reportedly turn to prescription drug abuse as a means of escape, or simply because they felt that they had nothing better to do. They may also turn to abuse of medicines as they try to achieve that “ideal” physical appearance.

There are several reasons that are disheartening, however, not the least of which is the fact that some students abuse drugs in order to be more competitive in school, and in order to handle the pressure of combining school work and extra-curricular activities.

No Comments