Associate director and chief financial officer of the Patricia Henley Foundation Trisha Geyer adds that sbTNN is a teen scene magazine show. Now on its third season, sbTNN offers teens “community-based arts programs” which help develop effective communication and enhance performing arts for the youth.

In the last six months, sbTNN has been working with their media sponsor Noozhawk in creating a special six-week investigative report and public announcements pertaining to prescription drug abuse. Many of the videos and have already been posted in their website together with articles from Noozhawk reporters.

The Santa Barbara Teen News Network has since came out with 28 public service announcements for prescription drug abuse. By interviewing and talking to professionals like doctors and medical providers and other resource persons like recovering addicts, the staff of sbTNN have learned and absorbed useful information with regards to prescription medications misuse and abuse.

According to one sbTNN staff, the notion that drinking is the largest problem among teens could be overtaken by the issue of prescription drug abuse.

Teen staff of the network confirmed that people they interviewed were excited about the project. “Everyone was really caring and just wanted to help,” says one teen interviewer.

As a result of the interviews, the teens themselves learn a lot and were in turn empowered to share information and knowledge about prescription drug abuse to others of their age. “We’re living (with those who misuse prescription drugs) and can help guide them,” says one teen volunteer for the teen network.

While these numbers are still low compared to drunk driving arrests, the dangers of drugged driving are just as real. Without the proper tools, though, what the cops can do to catch drugged drivers is very limited.

“If people next year knew that they’d be tested for drugged driving just like they are tested for drunk driving, it might deter them from doing it to begin with and save lives,” Schumer said.

This is why he is pushing for legislation that would provide $140 million research and training funding to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, in order to develop tests that cops can use to detect drugged drivers as well as to train cops to use any new technology.

Current tests being used by cops can detect alcohol intoxication. There is presently no device or test used by cops that can detect drugged drivers.

“Our cops need state-of-the-art equipment and better training to identify and apprehend those who are putting innocent victims at risk,” he added.

Findings from Kelly’s program called “Drug Use Trends in Charlevoix County” have shown that more high school students are engaging in marijuana use than cigarettes smoking. Partly due to medical marijuana laws, kids’ perception on the dangers of marijuana has decreased. In 2008, Michigan approved its medical marijuana program and is now one of the 16 states which have adopted such policy.

Another contributing factor to the increase in prescription drug abuse and marijuana use is the availability of such substances online. Prescribed medications and synthetic cannabinoids such as K2 and Spice are readily available for purchase online.

“We had a kid come in, saying he could buy some ‘stuff’ online for $50, and then ‘flip’ it for $700,” Kelly recalled. “Synthetics create all kinds of legal, political and health issues.”

The program, which was initiated by the BASES executive director, aimed to help parents and concerned citizens understand the trends that kids get into as far as prescription drugs and marijuana abuse are concerned. They were also taught about the dangers of addiction that could lead to psychological problems and the treatments that can help those who become victims of abuse.

Kelly, who is one of the co-founders of BASES, also suffered from alcohol addiction during his college years. He has remained sober since 1984 after enlisting in an alcoholism treatment program. Today, he is one of the resource persons of their program and is currently working on his master’s degree in counseling. He also works as a relapse prevention specialist and as an advanced addiction counselor for their organization.

In a year, medications for coughs, colds, infections and other conditions can easily accumulate in homes. Aside from expiration and reduced potency when such items are kept for a period of time, unused medications can be easily misused and abused by both adults and kids at home.

In the US, the fastest growing drug problem is abuse of prescribed drugs. This reality also happens in other countries and more and more people are becoming victims of the abuse.

Here are some tips from our friendly neighborhood pharmacists when storing and cleaning medications in medicine cabinets.

1. To preserve the state of medications, they are best kept in cool and adequately lit storages. These storages in turn should be secured by parents and should also be strategically stationed in places where kids can’t get to them easily.

2. If you have medications kept for the last year, it’s time to dispose of them properly. Don’t give them away nor share them with other people.

3. Once in a while, check the expiration dates of these commodities and if there are items way past their expiry dates, dispose of them safely.

4. If there are loose items, those that are no longer in their original containers, discolored and unidentifiable tablets, capsules or bottles, be sure to take them away from your cabinet and follow the correct guidelines in disposing them.

5. Do not flush medications down the drain or in toilet bowls. Take advantage of drug take-back programs and talk to your pharmacists to know more about the proper disposal of unwanted and unused medicines.

It has been noted that anti-diabetic and antithrombotic drugs were the top medications that have adverse drug side effects which accounted for most cases of seniors being admitted on emergency in hospitals.

Dr. Dan Budnitz of CDC in Atlanta confirmed that there are nearly 100,000 adults aged 65 and over that go into emergency admission every year because of the drugs that they take.

The top medications which are responsible for more than two-thirds of these admission cases include oral antiplatelet agents, insulins, warfarin, and oral hypoglycemic agents. This is why Budnitz and his team of researchers suggest for more safety initiatives in medicines that could have harmful effects to the elderly to save them from life-threatening conditions.

The results of the study were from representative samples from 58 hospitals that participated in the CDC’s National Electronic Injury Surveillance System-Cooperative Adverse Drug Event Surveillance project between 2007 and 2009.

From the 5,077 emergency admissions for the elderly over the same period, nearly half of them or 48.1% were adults aged 80 and above, and from among this population, 65.7% were reported as accidental overdose cases.

The four medications were the causes of the 67% in emergency admissions of seniors. It was Warfarin that topped the list affecting 33.3% of the 67% accounted cases, 13.9% for Insulins, 13.3% were due to oral platelet agents, and 10.7% cases were caused by oral hypoglycemic agents.

The researchers reiterated that there should be an effective way to manage the said types of drugs as by doing so, a significant and sizable number of patients could avoid unnecessary emergency admissions. All it takes is the right amount of caution and care in dealing with these medications for the elderly.

Circuit Judge Phillip Whiteaker together with the Lonoke County Juvenile Department and The Bridgeway made the “Teen Abuse of Bath Salts and Spices” event happen last week. Featured speakers included state drug director Frances Flener and chief illicit lab chemist for the Arkansas Crime Lab, Chris Harrison.

Flener informed the community that prescription drugs abuse is the fastest growing type of drug abuse today, and parents unknowingly become the suppliers of the drugs that kids use through their medicine cabinets at home. There is a need then for parents to limit the availability of such medicines especially at home.

The circuit judge encouraged the crowd to take advantage of drug take-back events. She said that the last time they had an event on Oct. 29, they collected nearly 6 tons of unused prescription medications. “That is a lot of pills. That is 11,926 pounds taken out of the reach of Arkansas youth.”

She also added that kids get their meds three-fourths of the time from people they know. “If medicines cannot be secured, get them out of the house.”

On the crime lab’s part, Harrison informed parents and school officials that the Food and Drug Administration does not list all of the designer drugs that are equally dangerous.

In a report from the Lonoke Democrat, he asked for the community’s involvement in controlling the proliferation of the said drugs in the area. He warns parents that there are some sellers that tolerate the sale of new drugs because of money.

Harrison presented examples like K2 (which is now banned in Arkansas) and bath salts which are still making their way through ‘head shops’ that most teens go to get their drugs.

Over the course of the trial, prosecutors presented witnesses and pieces of evidence that helped create the image of Dr. Murray as an incompetent and deceptive professional in his field, neglecting his ethical duties when he gave his patient a surgical anesthetic so powerful that Jackson never woke up.

After the jury, composed of seven men and five women, deliberated for nine hours over two days, the verdict was reached. Dr. Murray, who was charged with the lowest degree of homicide, could face a maximum sentence of four years in state prison. He also faces the possibility of having his license completely revoked.

Throughout the trial, witnesses strengthened the case against the doctor by testifying that Dr. Murray indeed administered propofol to Michael Jackson in unsuitable conditions, and keeping no records at all while failing at basic resuscitation which experts say are the factors that led to Jackson’s overdose death.

People were shocked as the truth on Jackson’s death was uncovered. When the pop star stopped breathing and went into cardiac arrest under propofol, Conrad Murray still had time to chat on the phone as well as send and receive text messages. He also delayed calling paramedics when he found out that Jackson wasn’t breathing anymore, and then lied about it to other doctors.

The defense team tried to put the blame on Jackson’s death on himself. They told the jury that the singer was addicted to painkillers that gave him trouble sleeping and so he took sedatives and injected himself with propofol which led to his death.

Yet prosecutors contend that even if Jackson did his own death, he was still supposed to be under Dr. Murray’s supervision, which he failed to do when he left Jackson alone.

Frankie Andrews lost two nephews, Matthew Absher and Brandon Moxley, to overdose of pain medication, specifically Oxycontin.

Andrews relates that the first victim, Matthew, got hooked on the pain medication after a football injury and from then on, he struggled with his addiction of Oxycontin until it claimed his life in 2006. His other nephew, Brandon, died just last year in yet another Oxycontin-related case.

Statistics from Drug Free NC show that deaths related to prescription drug abuse increased by 500% from 1999 to 2009. This means that in North Carolina alone, more people died of prescription drug abuse than cocaine and heroin overdose combined.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have advised doctors not to prescribe narcotics to patients until all other pain medications have been exhausted.

North Carolina has a higher average than the national figures when it comes to prescription drug abuse deaths. In 2008, the state had 12.9 deaths for every 100,000 when the national average was just 11.9 deaths for every 100,000 cases.

Today, Andrews is doing his part in spreading the real dangers of prescription drug abuse. He uses his story as he volunteers for the National Coalition Against Prescription Drug Abuse in educating parents, students, and physicians as well.

Andrews, who draws inspiration from what has happened in his family, is effectively teaching parents how to talk to their kids about the dangers of prescribed medications.

The defense team presented testimonies from a doctor and a nurse practitioner, and a number of witnesses all claiming that the singer demanded the drug that eventually killed him. They say Michael has been sick for the last 15 years, and that during the last few months of his life, he asked for intravenous medication to be administered to him, in his case, an anesthetic known as propofol.

Jackson’s friend and doctor Allan Metzger was called into the witness stand. He was with Michael for the last two years of his life, and told the court that he constantly reminded and warned the singer of the dangers of the anesthetic, and that he never administered the drug to him as sleeping aide.

Dr. Metzger further explained that in 2009, the pop star asked about intravenous sleep medications and mentioned a drug, which the star later on referred to as “juice.” He prescribed oral medication but Jackson did not believe any of them would work.

The nurse practitioner, Cherilyn Lee, admitted that she treated Jackson with vitamin infusions that made him feel better. To show his gratitude, Jackson invited her to London with him to join him in his concert tour. When his sleeping problems came back, Lee advised the pop star to undergo sleep study, and in mid-2009, before he was put under Murray’s care, Michael asked her to watch him sleep.

The singer was able to sleep, but after five hours he awoke and was upset.

“He said, ‘You see, I can’t stay asleep,’” she said.

The defense will continue their case to prove that Dr. Conrad Murray did not cause the singer’s death by giving him a lethal dose of propofol, despite allegations that he violated ethical guidelines of his profession in exchange for money.

Kristin, now 18, got her first taste of over-the-counter cough medications when she was about 15 or 16 years old. She admits that during those times, she had personal issues that needed to addressed.

Television became her source of information on the effects of cough medications. In the beginning, she took out a bottle from their medicine cabinet and drank all of its content. She felt so drunk after and then she began taking the drug on a regular basis for at least twice a week.

At a point when she was using the drug more often, she had to buy the item herself, and there were times when pharmacies refused to sell the medication to her due to her age. She was still able to get hold of the drug by having older people buy it for her.

Her high school friends did not know anything about her addiction. She found other students who were on the same situation she was in. She made friends with them and they were the ones who introduced other types of drugs and alcohol to her system. By this time, she leveled up to OxyContin and morphine pills.

Her studies suffered and things started to take a bad turn. From being a straight-A student, she was now hardly making it to the cut. Still, she kept everything from her parents.

Her family knew of her addiction when she finally got arrested. She stole something from her teacher and the teacher called the cops. She eventually told her parents she was hooked for years, and they were surprised that they did not know anything about it.

Today, Kristin is under the Lexington Center for Recovery for treatment. Kristin says, “It’s hard, but you gotta do what you gotta do. I wish that I had never started in the first place because when you do, once is never enough. It’s not worth it. You’re just going to end up dying or in jail.”