Pubdate: Wed, 19 Dec 2007 Source: Florida Times-Union (FL) Copyright: 2007 The Florida Times-Union Contact: http://www.jacksonville.com/aboutus/letters_to_editor.shtml Website: http://www.times-union.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/155 Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/opinion.htm (Opinion) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?225 (Students - United States) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/oxycontin.htm (Oxycontin/Oxycodone) JUST SAYING NO WORKS AT TIMES First, the good news: Fewer young people are using illegal drugs. The Associated Press, citing a University of Michigan study, reports about 13 percent of all eighth graders used an illegal drug sometime during the past year. In 1996, 24 percent did it. There was a particularly big drop in marijuana use. Fewer young people experimenting with drugs means there may not be as many adult addicts later. Now the bad news: More young people are, however, abusing prescription painkillers, the article reported. OxyContin, for example. An online medical dictionary describes OxyContin as "an opioid analgesic derived from morphine." Another medical Web site explains how to produce a heroin-like high from the prescription medication. There is an air of legitimacy about prescription drugs, and that may account for their emerging popularity among young abusers. How do young people get ahold of these prescription drugs? Possibly from parents' medicine cabinets. But a drug is a drug. Abuse is abuse. And addiction creates terrible problems later. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake