By Dr. Mercola
One in four teens has misused a prescription drug at least
once in their lifetime, according to new survey results from the
partnership at Drugfree.org and the MetLife Foundation.1
This represents a 33 percent increase in the past five years!
Among one of the most commonly abused class of drugs are
stimulants like Ritalin and Adderall, of which one in eight
teens (13 percent) said they had taken even though it wasn’t
prescribed to them.
Prescription drugs don’t hold the same stigma as illegal
recreational drugs, even though they can be just as deadly,
leading teens to regard them as a “safe” way to get high.
In many cases, parents only add to this assumption, not only
because they may take multiple prescription drugs themselves but
also, as the survey reported, because close to one-third of
parents believe prescription stimulants can improve their
teen’s academic performance.
One in Six Parents Believe Prescription Drugs Give a Safer
“High” Than Street Drugs
Another shocking belief held by one in six parents was that
using prescription drugs to get high is safer than using street
drugs. This might explain why 86 percent of teens said their
parents had not talked to them about the risks of abusing
prescription drugs. In fact, it’s often the parents’ own
medicine cabinets that become their children’s “drug dealers” …
Some teens even describe having “skittles parties,”2
where they combine a mix of pills they took from their parent’s
medicine cabinet into one big bowl, then take a few just for
fun.
Sadly, some teens pay for this one “bad” decision with their
lives. Drug fatalities more than doubled among teens and young
adults between 2000 and 2008, and these drug-induced fatalities
are not being driven by illegal street drugs.
Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC) found that the most commonly abused prescription drugs
like OxyContin, Vicodin, Xanax and Soma now cause more deaths
than heroin and cocaine combined.3
As written in the Baltimore Sun:4
"According to the White House Office of National Drug
Control Policy, prescription drugs are second to marijuana
as the drug of choice for today's teens. In fact, seven of
the top 10 drugs used by 12th-graders were prescription
drugs.
More than 40 percent of high school seniors reported
that painkillers are "fairly" or "very" easy to get. They
also reported that they believed that if they were to get
caught, there was less shame attached to the use of
prescription drugs than to street drugs. This mirrors the
perceptions of their parents, who when queried said that
they felt prescription drugs were a safer alternative to
drugs typically sold by a drug dealer."
There’s Nothing “Safe” About Prescription Drug Abuse
If you have a teenager or pre-teen in your life that you care
about, please make it a point to sit down and talk to them about
the dangers of taking prescription drugs just “for fun.” Far
from being “safer” than illegal street drugs, they can sometimes
kill in just one pill.
Be sure to let them in on this simple fact: in many cases
there's no difference between a recreational street drug and
a prescription drug. For example, hydrocodone, a
prescription opiate, is synthetic heroin. It's indistinguishable
from any other heroine as far as your brain and body is
concerned. So, if you're hooked on hydrocodone, you are in fact
a good-old-fashioned heroin addict.
Worse, pain-killing drugs like fentanyl are actually 100
times more potent than natural opioids like morphine,
making the addictive potential and side effects associated with
prescription drug use much higher. Among the most commonly
abused prescription medications, along with their risks, which
you can share with your teen, include:
Opioids (Painkillers)
Morphine, codeine, oxycodone, hydrocodone and fentanyl
all fall into this category. These drugs are not only
addictive, they can lead to slowed breathing and death if
too much is taken.
Stimulants
These include drugs such as Ritalin, Concerta and
Adderall (the latter of which actually contains amphetamine,
known and sold on the street as "speed" or "crank"), which
are often used to teat ADHD, narcolepsy and even sometimes
depression. Along with being highly addictive, stimulants
sometimes lead to feelings of hostility and paranoia, along
with risks like irregular heartbeat, heart failure and
seizures.
When a stimulant is combined with another medication,
such as an over-the-counter cold medicine that contains a
decongestant, it can cause dangerously high blood pressure
or irregular heart rhythms.
Depressants
Used to treat anxiety and sleep disorders, medications
such as Valium, Xanax, Ambien, and Sonata are also
addictive, and cause side effects like confusion, drowsiness
and impaired coordination. This can be especially risky
among teens if they then get behind the wheel to drive, as
it increases the risk of accidents. Further, if these drugs
are combined with alcohol or pain medications, the results
can be deadly.
In the Popular Science infographic above,5
you can see rankings of some of the deadliest drugs in the US,
according to data from the CDC. What is striking about this
graphic is not only the steady rise in drug-related deaths, but
also the fact that close to 60 percent of the drug overdose
deaths involve pharmaceutical drugs such as opioids (oxycodone,
hydrocodone, and methadone), anti-anxiety drugs, antidepressants
and antipsychotic drugs – the very same drugs often preferred by
teens for a “safer” high.
Politicians are Worried About Soda … but What About Prescription
Drugs?
Soda taxes and other measures to lower soda consumption is a
hot topic among politicians. Obviously, helping teens to drink
less soda is an admirable and important public health goal, but
what about the abuse of prescription drugs? One American dies
every 19 minutes from an accidental prescription drug overdose,6
a phenomenon now being described as “the biggest man-made
epidemic in the United States.”7
Yet, this is a soaring public health epidemic that receives far
too little attention from the media and lawmakers alike.
Unfortunately, we’re living in an era when the drug industry
is praised and revered for their “life-saving” medications, when
in reality even their proper use often takes lives
unnecessarily. Drugs are known to cause well over 125,000 deaths
per year in the US when taken correctly as prescribed –
and still the FDA allows fast-track approvals and countless new
additions of poorly tested drugs to the marketplace that must
later be withdrawn due to their lethal consequences.
This “FDA approval” makes teens believe that taking a few
pills here and there is no big deal, and parents add to this
flawed belief by often giving medications to their kids when
they’re not really necessary – a practice that often starts at a
very young age.
Nearly Half of Parents Give Cold Meds to Kids When They
Shouldn’t
In children under the age of 4, common over-the-counter cough
and cold medications can lead to allergic reactions, increased
heart rate, slow breathing, confusion, hallucinations,
drowsiness, sleeplessness, convulsions, nausea and constipation.
This is why, since 2008, labels on these drugs state that
they’re not intended for children under 4. Yet, according to a
new survey, the University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children's
Hospital National Poll on Children's Health, more than 40
percent of US parents give these cough and cold medications to
their children aged 3 and younger.8
There is a common perception that if you’re coughing,
sneezing or have a low-grade fever, you must take a medication
to get rid of it. In reality, coughing and sneezing are tools
your body uses to get rid of viruses and irritants, and fever
also helps to kill bacteria and viruses.
So if you take a drug to stop these natural protections, you
are actually stopping your body’s healing process -- and in the
long run it will likely take you even longer to feel better.
That, combined with the serious risks these drugs can pose to
children, makes a strong case against their use … yet
many parents still reach for such medications at the first hint
of a sniffle. For kids, this sends the message that drugs are
necessary to make you “feel better” – a belief they may keep
when they reach their teenage years …
Novartis Drug Company Being Sued for Illegal Kickback Scheme
You probably wouldn’t trust that a drug dealer on the street
had your best interests at heart … you would assume they’re
mostly interested in making a profit. But make no mistake – the
leading pharmaceutical companies are also among the largest
corporate criminals in the world, behaving as if they are little
more than white-collar drug dealers.
In one of the most recent examples, the US government sued
the drug company Novartis for giving pharmacies discounts and
rebates to switch kidney transplant patients from competitors’
drugs to their own anti-rejection drug Myfortic. Medicare and
Medicaid reportedly paid tens of millions of dollars in
reimbursements to the pharmacies as a result of the illegal
kickback scheme, which has reportedly been going on since 2005.
This is not an isolated incident, either. A 2010 study
analyzed trends in criminal and civil actions against drug
companies, and revealed that the drug industry is the biggest
defrauder of the federal government under the False Claims Act.9
Despite stiffer financial penalties, criminal activity has
increased dramatically in recent years. These white-collar
criminals are the same ones behind the supposedly “safe”
medications sitting in your medicine cabinet; if they’re willing
to defraud the federal government, what makes you think they’re
not willing to defraud you, too?
12 Signs Your Teen May be Abusing Prescription Drugs
Prescription drug abuse often goes unnoticed by parents until
it’s too late, so be sure to keep a close eye out for the
following signs that your teen may be abusing prescription
drugs:
Changes in sleeping habits or energy level |
Changes in mood or personality |
Changes in personal hygiene or appearance |
Changes in friends |
Loss of appetite |
Changes in grades or dedication to schoolwork |
Constricted eye pupils (“pinpoint pupils”), which may be
a sign of opiate use |
Poor decision making |
Restlessness or impulsive behavior |
Missing medications around your home |
Loss of interest in activities, sports, etc. |
Sudden weight loss |
If you notice these signs or otherwise suspect that your teen
may be abusing prescription drugs, talk to them immediately
about the dangers and seek professional help if necessary.
© Copyright 1997-2013 Dr. Joseph Mercola. All Rights Reserved.