Prescription Abuse Increases Among College Students
Christina Kostic
Issue date: 3/27/07 Section: News
- Page 1 of 3 next >
Imagine an unknown conglomeration of prescription pills being poured into a bowl, then grabbing a handful and ingesting a random and often dangerous combination of drugs in hopes of getting high.
This is the disturbing new trend that teens are now turning to in lieu of illegal drugs like marijuana.
More and more teens and college students across the United States are having get-togethers called "pharm parties" where people bring assortments of prescription drugs of which they swap and create recipes of pills to get high.
According to an article from Yahoo news, which summarized the findings of the report by John Walters, director of National Drug Control Policy; while teen use of marijuana declined from 30.1 percent to 25.8 percent from 2002 to 2005, use of the painkillers OxyContin increased from 2.7 percent to 3.5 percent, and Vicodin increased from 6 percent to 6.3 percent.
Vicodin and Oxycontin are the most commonly abused prescription drugs by teens.
Many teens have the wrong idea that prescription drugs can't really harm you, because they are meant to help you.
Mary K. Connell, director of Health Services for Salve Regina, quickly dismissed the notion that prescription drugs are safer than illegal drugs, which is a common misunderstanding teens have.
"Kids don't understand the side effects of prescription drugs," Connell said. "They mix the pills together with alcohol and other drugs, and you can't do that."
In many cases, misuse of prescription drugs can be damaging and even fatal. It's easy for kids to accidentally overdose on prescription pills, Connell said, especially at "pharm parties" where no one pays attention to what anyone is consuming.
Potential serious consequences of prescription drug abuse include; addiction, strokes, seizures, comas and death.
There are even websites for ordering pharmaceuticals without written prescriptions and published recipes of pills to mix for getting high.
This is the disturbing new trend that teens are now turning to in lieu of illegal drugs like marijuana.
More and more teens and college students across the United States are having get-togethers called "pharm parties" where people bring assortments of prescription drugs of which they swap and create recipes of pills to get high.
According to an article from Yahoo news, which summarized the findings of the report by John Walters, director of National Drug Control Policy; while teen use of marijuana declined from 30.1 percent to 25.8 percent from 2002 to 2005, use of the painkillers OxyContin increased from 2.7 percent to 3.5 percent, and Vicodin increased from 6 percent to 6.3 percent.
Vicodin and Oxycontin are the most commonly abused prescription drugs by teens.
Many teens have the wrong idea that prescription drugs can't really harm you, because they are meant to help you.
Mary K. Connell, director of Health Services for Salve Regina, quickly dismissed the notion that prescription drugs are safer than illegal drugs, which is a common misunderstanding teens have.
"Kids don't understand the side effects of prescription drugs," Connell said. "They mix the pills together with alcohol and other drugs, and you can't do that."
In many cases, misuse of prescription drugs can be damaging and even fatal. It's easy for kids to accidentally overdose on prescription pills, Connell said, especially at "pharm parties" where no one pays attention to what anyone is consuming.
Potential serious consequences of prescription drug abuse include; addiction, strokes, seizures, comas and death.
There are even websites for ordering pharmaceuticals without written prescriptions and published recipes of pills to mix for getting high.
Be the first to comment on this story