Pubdate: Sun, 10 Oct 2004 Source: Charlotte Observer (NC) Copyright: 2004 The Charlotte Observer Contact: http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/78 Author: Rebecca Dana, Washington Post Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth) MEDICINE ABUSE A GROWING TREND Teens Using Prescription Drugs, Over-The-Counter Cold Remedies To Get High WASHINGTON - At CVS pharmacies, you now have to be at least 18 to buy Coricidin Cough & Cold medicine. At Walgreens, there's a three-pack limit on an extra-strength variety of those pills. And at some independently owned drugstores, syrup bottles and blister packs of cough suppressants have vanished from shelves and reappeared behind the counter, near the cigarettes or the prescription drugs. The nation's pharmacy giants are taking precautions in response to a trend that doctors and anti-drug abuse activists say could grow into an epidemic: Teenagers and young adults are using medicine to get high. There are other, darker signs. One morning in May, on a lark, five ninth-graders in Loudoun County, Va., swallowed a "cocktail" of Coricidin and the motion-sickness drug Dramamine. Nauseated and loopy, they were rushed to Loudoun Hospital Center, where an emergency room physician explained that the drugs -- considered safe when used as intended -- can be fatal in very large doses. From acid to Ecstasy, patterns of substance abuse have evolved with the times, and in recent years, illicit use of prescription and over-the-counter drugs has soared among a certain demographic -- mostly suburban, mostly young and mostly middle-class, according to researchers. They get the drugs through the Internet, at school and from their parents' medicine cabinets. "We feel this is going to be the next big wave of substance abuse in the country," said Steve Dnistrian, executive vice president of the Partnership for a Drug-Free America. "It's limited to no one prescription drug or over-the-counter drug." That data, to some, are startling. Prescription drugs are now second only to marijuana as a category of illicit substance abused by teenagers, according to the 2003 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. The number of teenagers calling into poison-control centers nationwide about cough medicine abuse has doubled in four years. In a survey of more than 7,000 teenagers by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America, one in five reported taking a prescription painkiller without a doctor's prescription. "Prescription drug use is all over the place," said Chrissy Trotta, a student at George Washington University who founded a campus group aimed, in part, at preventing such behavior. "Often painkillers, things like Vicodin, are mixed with other drugs ... It's a tremendous problem." The motivation is often boredom and a sense of rebellion -- not unlike what motivated drug users of their parents' generation, according to interviews with more than a dozen Washington area high school students and an equal number of college students from across the country. Most spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of repercussions from their parents and their schools. Alex Kaplan, 17, a high school senior from Anne Arundel County, Md., said he has never used prescription or over-the-counter drugs to get high, but that abuse of both is prevalent among some of his peers. "When it comes to Robitussin," he said, "it's not like what you would drink if you had a cold, but kids, like, actually drinking half a bottle or 75 percent of the bottle." The mix of abused medicines has changed. Quaaludes, a type of sedative, are no longer widely available, but today's college students sometimes encounter punch bowls filled with drugs such as the painkiller Percodan, at parties, said Andrea Barthwell, deputy director for demand reduction in the Office of National Drug Control Policy. And unlike their parents, young people can sometimes get those drugs through online pharmacies. In response, the Bush administration unveiled an anti-drug policy this year that focused on prescription drug abuse. The plan would dedicate nearly $150 million to augment prescription monitoring programs, to train physicians to combat abuse and to establish education programs on the dangers of taking such drugs recreationally. Each category of medication has negative side effects. "Robotripping" - -- one of the terms for abusing dextromethorphan, the active ingredient in cough medicines such as Robitussin -- can cause hallucinations, and it's almost always accompanied by the unpleasant symptoms of overdose, such as vomiting, said Rose Ann Soloway, clinical toxicologist at the National Capital Poison Center. - --- MAP posted-by: Derek