Pubdate: Wed, 19 Dec 2007
Source: Reading Eagle-Times (PA)
Copyright: 2007 Reading Eagle Company
Contact:  http://www.readingeagle.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1399
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)

TEENS AREN'T SEEING FULL PICTURE ON DRUGS

The Issue: A federally funded survey shows that  although use of illicit 
drugs among teenagers has  declined, misuse of prescription drugs has 
increased.

Our Opinion: The full message apparently still is not  getting through: The 
improper use of any drug can be  dangerous, even lethal.

The 33rd annual survey by the University of Michigan  Institute for Social 
Research on teenage drug use has  been completed, and there is good news 
and bad news.

The good news is that the use of illicit drugs in down.  The bad news is 
that the misuse of prescription drugs  has increased. That has cuased many 
experts to be  concerned.

"Prescription drugs remain at high and very concerning  levels," Wilson 
Compton, division director at the  National Institute on Drug Abuse, told 
The Chicago  Tribune. "We need to do a better job of communicating  the 
risks of these prescription drugs and protecting youth from what can be 
dangerous in the long run."

The survey, called "Monitoring the Future," was funded  by the institute 
and involved more than 48,000 eighth-,  10th- and 12th-graders.

One of the most potent painkillers being misused by  teenagers is 
OxyContin. In this year's survey one out  of 20 teens admitted misusing it, 
an increase of 30  percent from 2002, when the institute began 
monitoring  use of the drug.

The use of Vicodin, another painkiller, has remained  constant since the 
institute began monitoring it in  2002. It's misused by about 10 percent of 
the teenagers  surveyed.

The survey didn't try to explain the increase in abuse  of prescription 
drugs by teenagers, but at least one  expert believes it's because the 
drugs are easily  accessible.

John P. Walters, director of the Office of National  Drug Control Policy, 
said that based on other surveys  the source of prescription drugs for 71 
percent of  youngsters is their parents' medicine cabinets.

Walters also said that many teenagers seem to be  unaware of the danger of 
prescription drugs.

Although they understand that illicit drugs such as  heroin and cocaine can 
be dangerous, teens seem to  assume that drugs made by pharmaceutical 
companies are  safe.

"These are certainly dangerous, mostly synthetic  opiates that are the most 
widely abused," Walters told  the Los Angeles Times. "They are not only a 
source of  addiction, but they ... can be a source of seizure,  even death, 
when taken in quantities."

Even though the use of illicit drugs is down,  especially among 
eighth-graders, one drug appears to be  staging a comeback. The use of 
Ecstasy, a mind-altering  drug, had dropped dramatically early in this 
decade  when concern about it sparked a considerable amount of negative 
publicity. But in the past three years  concerns about the risks of Ecstasy 
apparently have  waned, and its use among all three grade levels  surveyed 
has increased.

Lloyd Johnston, a University of Michigan researcher who  worked on the 
survey, told the Chicago Tribune, "Young  people are coming to see its use 
as less dangerous than  did their predecessors as recently as 2004, and 
that is  a warning signal that the increase in use may  continue."

Bill Piper, director of national affairs for the Drug  Policy Alliance, 
cautioned against viewing the decline  in the use of illicit drugs as a 
victory in the war on  drugs.

He said the decrease is mainly due to fewer teenagers  using marijuana, one 
of the least dangerous of the  illegal drugs.

Although the good news in the report is encouraging,  it's evident that 
there is still much work to be done.

The message for teenagers, and adults, too, is that  drugs, whether illicit 
or prescription, can be  dangerous, even lethal. 
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