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Prescription Drug Abuse News and Media Reports
The latest
prescription abuse news stories can be found
here for easy access. Just click on the link
following each story for the full news article.
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Prescription drug abuse
ruins lives, effective treatment needed
Prescription Drugs Can
End Your Career
Source: Air Force Link
Commentary by Col. Howard Hayes
May 1, 2009 -
A technical
sergeant in my squadron took a single pill from
his son's prescription bottle in May 2007, and
that pill started him down the road toward a
court-martial and discharge from the Air Force.
The drug was a low-level amphetamine used to
correct attention deficit disorder. Both the
sergeant and his son suffered from the same
condition and used the same medication. The NCO
had exhausted his supply and since he was too
busy to make an appointment, he took the pill
from his son's supply. Without a current
prescription, he was found guilty of illegal
drug use.
(click for full story)
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As recession hits, more
adults abusing prescriptions
Seniors Prescription
Drug Abuse Rises in Recession
Source: Kansas City
Star
By: Mike McGraw
December 29, 2008
- (Excerpts) During the Great Depression,
Kansans chased away the blues with palliatives
like Crawford County Deep Shaft — moonshine,
that is.
Today, in what may be the worst economy since,
they’re reaching for a vast array of
prescription medications.
At an “alarming rate,” Drug Enforcement
Administration officials told Congress earlier
this year. More than 7 million Americans abuse
prescription drugs, according to the DEA, an 80
percent increase in six years.
Figures for Missouri and Kansas suggest abuse
may be especially pronounced here. State
officials say they lack the tools available in
most other states to deal with it.
Federal figures show that shipments into Kansas
of hydrocodone (the active ingredient in Vicodin)
jumped by more than 300 percent since 2000, much
in the last year. Oxycodone, another commonly
abused synthetic opiod, is up more than 260
percent.
“Without a doubt, there is an increase in use of
scheduled drugs in Kansas,” said Jeff Brandau, a
special agent at the Kansas Bureau of
Investigation. Either Kansans are in a lot of
pain, he said, “or something else is going on.”
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Older adults facing
prescription drug addiction
Seniors Must be Careful
with their Medication
Source: eFluxMedia.com
By: Christian Coley
December 26, 2008
- A newly released survey shows that about 4
percent of older adults in the United States
combine over-the-counter medications with
prescription drugs in ways that put them at risk
for potentially dangerous interactions. In
addition, a recent report estimates that adults
over 65 account for more than 175,000 emergency
department visits for adverse drug reactions
each year. Almost 30 percent of seniors are
taking at least five prescription medications
and many combine prescription and
nonprescription drugs.
The drug-to-drug interactions extend beyond
prescription drugs, with nearly half involving
the use of over-the-counter medications or
dietary supplements, and that's happening
despite the limited availability of drug safety
information for nonprescription medications. It
would look like many of the seniors haven't
found out that, despite the use of medications
is often beneficial, there are often risks
associated with their use.
(click for full story)
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Prescription drug side
effects cause concern
A Prescription for Problems
Source: MSNBC -
Delaware Valley - PA/NJ
By: Jo Ciavaglia
December 26, 2008
- Most people know prescription drugs can be
dangerous, but fever reducers, cold and flu
medications and even pain relievers sold in
supermarkets and drug stores can be potential
killers, too.
Dr. Daniel Haimowitz suspects an
over-the-counter sinus medication may have
contributed to the heart failure of a patient
last week.
The Bristol Township geriatrician also has
patients on prescription blood thinners who've
developed stomach ulcers after taking
over-the-counter pain relievers. He said he had
trouble thinning the blood of another patient -
until she stopped taking her daily vitamins.
His experiences aren't unique. New research
suggests nearly half of older adults in the U.S.
combine prescription and nonprescription drugs
and 1 in 25 are at risk for potentially
dangerous interactions or overdose, according to
a study in Journal of the American Medical
Association.
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Addiction to
prescriptions part of growing problem
Drug and Alcohol use
Rises in Washington state
"Washington state ranks sixth among the
states in nonmedical use of pain relievers by
people 12 and older..."
Source: Associated Content
On: Seattlepi.com
December 25, 2008
- Abuse of drugs and alcohol is on the rise in
Washington state, including one of the highest
rates of nonmedical use of prescription pain
relievers in the nation, according to the state
Department of Social and Health Services.
In the agency's 16th annual report on drug and
alcohol abuse trends, the good news is that
smoking and methamphetamine abuse are on the
decline.
Washington state ranks sixth among the states in
nonmedical use of pain relievers by people 12
and older, after Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee,
Utah and West Virginia. The prescription pain
relievers being abused are mostly opiates.
(click for full story)
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Oxycontin is a New
Target in the War on Drugs
David Spakowicz, New Wisconsin Drug Czar,
Will Bust You for Selling or Using OxyContin
Source: Associated Content
By: Michael Thompson
December 20, 2008
- Wisconsin's new drug czar, like other drug
czars, is eager to put people in prison. David
Spakowicz, appointed as director of the
Wisconsin Justice Department's Narcotics Bureau,
says he even will imprison people for abuse of
OxyContin, a prescription drug.
"We see a lot of kids get addicted to OxyContin,"
David Spakowicz told The Chicago Tribune in an
interview. "They divert them generally from
other prescriptions to already legally
prescribed people. They see that mom or dad
might have had some Oxy in their medicine
cabinet that they didn't use, because they had a
back injury. All of a sudden now they're selling
it to their friends. And with OxyContin we've
seen within the last about year and a half,
though, the price of Oxy on the street level has
doubled. It used to be 50 cents a milligram. Now
it's a dollar a milligram. So for a 40-milligram
Oxy, what used to cost a person $20 now costs
them $40. Unfortunately with that, we're seeing
that a lot of younger people can't afford that,
so they're switching to heroin, because it's
less expensive."
(click for full story)
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Deaths Tied to
Painkillers Surge in Rural Areas
Two-thirds who died from overdose in West
Virginia lacked prescription
Source: MSNBC
By: Julie Steenhuysen
December 9, 2008 -
CHICAGO - Prescription painkillers account for
most fatal overdoses from legal drugs in West
Virginia and contribute to an exploding problem
of overdoses across the United States that is
most pronounced in rural areas, U.S. government
researchers said on Tuesday.
They said two-thirds of people who died from
overdoses of legal pills in the state had no
prescription for the drugs that killed them,
suggesting many legal drugs are being diverted
for non-medical uses.
(click for full story)
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More young people
struggle with prescription drug abuse, require
rehab
Investigators: Teen
Prescription Drug Abuse a Growing Problem
Source: WNCN.com
By: Linda Byron
December 3, 2008 -
BOTHELL, Wash. - Accidental prescription drug
overdoses are now killing more people than car
accidents in Washington state.
A lot of people responded to our first KING 5
Investigators report on deadly drug combinations
in October, and we felt one story was so
important we had to share it.
Ryan DePuy of Bothell was just 17 years old when
he overdosed on a deadly combination of
prescription and over-the-counter medications.
He was a junior at Bothell High School.
(click for full story)
Parents: Talk to your Teen about Prescription
Drug Abuse
Source: cynlink.com
By: Ami Olson and Miranda Pennock
December 2, 2008 -
As the spotlight is turned on the newest trend
in teenage substance abuse, parents and school
administrators are learning that the two places
their kids were supposed to be safest - at home
and at school - are the places most kids have
found access to prescription drugs.
The Center for Substance Abuse Research at the
University of Maryland reported last month teens
aged 12 to 17 said it would be easier for them
to purchase prescription drugs than beer.
(click for full story)
Against Doctors' Orders
Teens Flirt with
Danger, Swap Drugs at Parties
Source: JournalGazette.net
By: Jane Glenn Cannon
November 27, 2008
- Acting on a tip from a parent, Garvin County,
Okla., deputies last month busted a “pharm”
party, a gathering of young people exchanging
and taking prescription drugs to get high. This
was the second pharm party deputies had
interrupted in recent weeks, Undersheriff Steve
Brooks said.
Parties where young people share prescription
drugs are a growing problem, and they can be
deadly, Mike Snowden, an Oklahoma drug agent,
said.
Eighty-one percent of drug-related deaths in
Oklahoma each year are attributed to
prescription drugs, he said. Many of those
reported deaths are of young people.
Before the pharm party last month, a parent
overheard her son talking about plans for the
party, refused to let him go out that evening
and called authorities. Deputies set up
surveillance outside the house until it looked
like a party was under way, then interrupted it,
Brooks said.
Inside, deputies found about 25 teens with an
assortment of drugs that included muscle
relaxers, tranquilizers and the painkillers
morphine and OxyContin, Brooks said.
(click for full story)
Prescription Medication Abuse on the Rise with
Students
Source: The Colonnade
By: Aubrey Petkas
November 21, 2008
- Most prescription medication comes in a little
transparent orange container, neatly labeled,
with a child-proof twist off cap reading "Push
Down & Turn".
But some always get their medication sealed
inside the cellophane wrapper from a pack of
Marlboros.
Little orange and blue pills.
Time in a capsule coupled with the
self-enhancing powers unrivaled by any drug on
the market, underground or not.
Adderall to focus before class, Xanax before a
presentation or OxyContin to have a good time -
college prescription junkies are an FDA stamp
away from their street counterparts.
(click for full story)
Drug Abuse Moves from Alleyways to Hallways
Source: CYNLink
By: Ami Olson and Miranda Pennock
November 20, 2008
- In the span of two weeks, students at three
Central New York schools became the faces of a
new wave of substance abuse among our youth:
prescription drugs.
At Onondaga Central School, a ninth-grader was
arrested on two charges of criminal possession
of a controlled substance - hydrocodone, a
narcotic painkiller. At Wellwood Middle School,
in the Fayettville-Manlius school district, six
eighth grade students were suspended after one
student passed out anti-depressants to five
classmates, three of whom ingested the pills.
In perhaps the most frightening incident, a
16-year-old Marcellus High School student was
hospitalized for overdosing on Strattera, an
ADHD medication. Four students were arrested in
connection with the case.
And those are just the reported incidents. The
National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH)
found in 2007 that prescription drugs used
non-medically were the drug of choice for 12-
and 13-year-olds, beating out marijuana as the
most popular high. For 14- to 17-year-olds,
prescription drugs came in second only to
marijuana, used more often than illicit drugs,
inhalants and hallucinogens.
(click for full story)
Prescription Drug Use Among Teens on the Rise
Source: WKOWtv.com
November 13, 2008
- ...State drug agents report a spike in
prescription drug cases.
Pain killers seem to be the favorite targets of
thieves who steal from medicine cabinets and
pharmacies.
And the report shows more and more young people
are turning to prescription drugs.
"It's becoming an increasing problem and it's a
problem about which many people are not aware.
More people are concerned about their kids
drinking, using meth," said Kathy Stone of the
Iowa Department of Public Health.
(click for full story)
Prescription Drugs Deadlier Than Alcohol or
Illegal Drug Abuse
Source: WBAY.com
By: Marcie Kobriger
November 12, 2008
- While abuse of alcohol and illegal drugs is a
dangerous problem, it's the misuse of legal
substances that's killing more people in Brown
County.
"In Brown County right now, our highest problem
in illicit drugs is cocaine, the powder base.
We're dealing with that," Chief Deputy John
Gossage says.
But while cocaine may be the number-one
narcotics problem for law enforcement on the
streets, it's not the drug most responsible for
killing its users in Brown County.
"The big problem has been the use or misuse of
prescription medications. By and large, that's
the largest number of deaths that I see
drug-related," Medical Examiner Al Klimek said.
(click for full story)
Prescription Drugs Kill 300 Percent More
Americans Than Illegal Drugs
Source: NaturalNews.com
By: David Gutierrez
November 10, 2008
- A report by the Florida Medical Examiners
Commission has concluded that prescription drugs
have outstripped illegal drugs as a cause of
death.
An analysis of 168,900 autopsies conducted in
Florida in 2007 found that three times as many
people were killed by legal drugs as by cocaine,
heroin and all methamphetamines put together.
According to state law enforcement officials,
this is a sign of a burgeoning prescription drug
abuse problem.
(click for full story)
New Prescription Drug Cocktail is Claiming Young
Lives
Source: Houston News
By: Kevin Peters
November 3, 2008 -
There’s no greater bond than a mother’s love,
but no amount of Peggy Hemmenway’s love could
save her 21-year-old son, Phillip Ray Cottle,
who suffered from cystic fibrosis.
Phillip Ray Cottle died of a reported drug
overdose.
Cottle was given powerful prescription drugs to
ease his pain, but Hemmenway says those same
drugs became her son’s addiction two years ago.
“He would get Vicodin, Hydrocodone,” said
Hemmenway.
She said that her son abused the meds and even
mixed several at a time.
Two months ago, Hemmenway says, her son took a
powerful mixture and never woke up.
(click for full story)
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Parents'
Prescription Drugs can be Enticing to Children
Source: St. Petersburg Times
By: Los Angeles Times
October 21, 2008 -
Prescriptions for painkillers — left over from
surgeries, orthopedic injuries or dental work —
frequently languish unfinished in the family
medicine chest.
Anti-anxiety medications, including the
benzodiazepines known by their commercial names
Xanax and Ativan, take up shelf space because
they are prescribed for episodic use.
And as a growing number of adults are diagnosed
with ADHD, their stimulant medication often sits
alongside that of their children with attention
difficulties.
Unwittingly, parents who leave these medications
unsecured and unmonitored are tempting their
children — and their children's friends — to try
drugs they have heard and read about from
schoolmates, in movies and on the Internet.
(click for full story)
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Hillsborough Raising Awareness about
Prescription Drug Abuse
Source: MyCentralJersey.com
By: Pamela Sroka-Holzmann
October 20, 2008 -
To raise awareness about prescription drug
abuse, the Hillsborough Millstone Municipal
Alliance has unveiled a replica of a statewide
campaign prevention billboard, stating "Who knew
Grandma Kept a Stash?" along Route 206.
The statewide public service campaign, titled
"Grandma's Stash," is an award-winning
multi-media effort using newspapers, radio
stations, billboards and trains throughout the
state to raise awareness that misuse of
prescription drugs (which is second only to the
use of marijuana as the nation's most prevalent
drug problem).
The "Grandma's Stash" campaign was created by
the Partnership for a Drug-Free New Jersey to
send a message to parents, grandparents and
other caretakers that young people have easy
access to dangerous misused prescription
medication in almost every home medicine
cabinets.
(click for full story)
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Prescription Opiates and Kids: One Pill Can Kill
Source: MSNBC
By: JoNel Aleccia
October 20, 2008 -
Eight children died, 43 suffered
life-threatening injuries or serious
disabilities and 214 required prolonged medical
treatment, all because they mistakenly took
strong medications belonging to their parents,
grandparents and other adults.
“For opioids, really, one pill is enough,” said
Dart. “One pill can kill or at least cause major
effects.”
The incidents represent a surge in injuries and
near-misses that have made prescription drugs a
top cause of child poisonings, second only to
carbon monoxide poisoning, said Dart. The study,
which used data from the Researched Abuse,
Diversion and Addiction-Related Surveillance —
RADARS — system, probably underestimates the
extent of the problem, he added, because not all
poison control centers participated and not all
exposures are reported.
(click for full story)
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Prescription Drugs: Grim Reaper Resides in your
Medicine Cabinet
Source: Salt Lake Tribune
By: Tribune Editorial
October 20, 2008 -
We wrote this piece on Wednesday. By the time it
lands in your driveway, the odds are that five
Utahns will have perished, that five families
will be grieving, children will be orphaned,
spouses will be widowed, and parents will be
preparing to bury a child, all because of
prescription drugs.
These are unintended deaths resulting from abuse
or improper use of legal opioids and narcotics.
If child molesters or drunken drivers or
cultists were killing 300 Utahns a year, imagine
the clamor. But this, for the most part, has
been a silent epidemic.
(click for full story)
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Other Resources -
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resources are available for more
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drug abuse in general. |
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Drug
Rehabs -
State to
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drug abuse. Drug treatment. |
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Addiction
doesn't happen just to junkies on the street.
Addiction touches lives everywhere. Kids,
adults, and seniors are becoming addicted to
prescription drugs at an alarming rate.
(read more)
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 Prescription-Abuse.org
has compiled a number of online resources to
help in your search for more information
regarding addiction and prescription abuse...(read more)
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Painkillers
are not created equally. Even if as a patient
follows their doctor's instructions, addiction
can occur. New pain relief products on the
market are can be dangerous especially for all
the wrong reasons.
(read more)
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 Drug
rehab treatment centers are found throughout the
United States; however, the drug climate is not
necessarily the same state to state.
Chronic drug addiction varies from rural areas
to major cities. (read more)
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