Pubdate: Tue, 25 Sep 2012
Source: USA Today (US)
Copyright: 2012 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc
Contact: http://mapinc.org/url/625HdBMl
Website: http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/index.htm
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/466
Author: Donna Leinwand Lager

PRESCRIPTION DRUG ABUSE DROPS AMONG YOUNG PEOPLE

Prescription Drug Abuse Drops Among Young People

Prescription drug abuse in the USA declined last year year to the 
lowest rate since 2002 amid federal and state crackdowns on 
drug-seeking patients and over-prescribing doctors.

Young adults drove the drop. The number of people 18 to 25 who 
regularly abuse prescription drugs fell 14% to 1.7 million, the 
National Survey on Drug Use and Health reported Monday. In 2011, 3.6% 
of young adults abused pain relievers, the lowest rate in a decade.

The survey, sponsored by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health 
Services Administration, collects data from interviews with 67,500 
people age 12 and older.

Administrator Pamela Hyde said the decrease in abuse indicates that 
public health and law enforcement efforts to curb abuse of 
prescription drugs, such as the powerful painkillers oxycodone and 
hydrocodone, work.

In 2011, 6.1 million people abused narcotic pain pills, 
tranquilizers, stimulants and sedatives, down from 7 million people 
in 2010, the survey found. Pain pill abuse dropped from 2.1% of the 
population in 2009 to 1.7% in 2011.

Still, the number of people addicted to pain relievers grew from 
936,000 in 2002 to 1.4 million in 2011. About a third of the addicts 
are 18 to 25, the survey found.

Most states operate prescription drug monitoring programs, which can 
identify doctors who prescribe excessive doses of the drugs and 
patients who seek multiple prescriptions from different doctors, said 
Gil Kerlikowske, director of the White House Office of Drug Control Policy.

In 2011, 22.5 million Americans 12 or older, nearly 9% of the 
population, said they regularly used illicit drugs such as marijuana, 
cocaine, heroin, hallucinogens and inhalants or abused prescription 
drugs, including pain relievers, tranquilizers, stimulants and 
sedatives. While cocaine abuse has dropped from 2.4 million regular 
users in 2006 to 1.4 million last year, heroin abuse is rising, the 
survey found. The number of people who reported regular heroin use 
grew from 161,000 in 2007 to 281,000 in 2011, the survey found.

Marijuana remains the most commonly abused drug at all ages.

Among youth, while drinking and smoking declined, marijuana use grew 
steadily since 2008, the survey found. Another study, Monitoring the 
Future, which surveys students in eighth and 10th grades, has also 
noted increasing marijuana use. That study found 12.4% of eighth- and 
10th-graders had used marijuana in the previous month, the highest 
rate since 2003.

"Marijuana is still bad news," Kerlikowske said.

Just 44.8% of teens think smoking marijuana is risky, down from 54.6% 
in 2007, he said. Voter initiatives to legalize and regulate 
marijuana send a message that marijuana is medicine, Kerlikowske said.

"I think they are getting a bad message on marijuana," he said. "I 
think that the message that it's medicine and should be legalized is 
a bad message.

Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, 
which advocates legalizing marijuana and treatment over 
incarceration, says the U.S. should focus on public health 
initiatives to curb drug use, reduce overdoses and halt the spread of 
HIV and hepatitis.

"It's good to see problematic use of alcohol and tobacco among young 
people continuing to decline -- and worth noting that this good news 
has little to nothing to do with arrests, incarceration or mandatory 
drug testing," Nadelmann said. "Contrast this with marijuana use, 
which has increased somewhat notwithstanding the fact that almost 
800,000 people are arrested each year for marijuana possession."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom