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Petition Against 90 Day Supply of Schedule II Drugs
Target:
Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)
Sponsored by:
HARMD Inc. (Helping America Reduce Methadone Deaths)
Prescription Drug Abuse & Deaths - Remember J.P.www.HARMD.org

DEAs Deadly Decision
As Prescription Drug Deaths Increase DEA Reduces Restrictions on Schedule II Drugs
On Wednesday December 19th, 2007, the DEA announced physicians are now allowed to write a prescription for a 90-day supply of schedule II drugs. Schedule II drugs are controlled and classified as legal narcotic and stimulant drugs with high potential for dependence and abuse, but still having therapeutic value. Other drugs in this category include Cocaine, Methadone, Oxycontin, Morphine, Ritalin, and Fentanyl.
In the wake of a prescription drug abuse epidemic in this country, the DEA has reversed the 30-day rule, which was initially put in place to reduce the abuse of schedule II drugs. According to the CDC, the number of unintentional poisoning deaths increased from 12,186 in 1999 to 20,950 in 2004. The largest increases for prescription drug deaths were in the "other and unspecified" drug, psychotherapeutic drug, and "narcotic and hallucinogen" drug categories.[i] The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) has stated that non-medical use or abuse of prescription drugs is a serious and growing public health problem in this country an estimated 48 million people (ages 12 and older) have used prescription drugs for non-medical reasons in their lifetimes.[ii]

The DEA must reverse this deadly decision in order to keep these deadly drugs off the street. This decision is NOT going to curb the epidemic currently taking place in this country with prescription drug deaths. How is putting more drugs on the street protecting the public???
www.HARMD.org

DEAs Deadly Decision
As Prescription Drug Deaths Increase DEA Reduces Restrictions on Schedule II Drugs
On Wednesday December 19th, 2007, the DEA announced physicians are now allowed to write a prescription for a 90-day supply of schedule II drugs. Schedule II drugs are controlled and classified as legal narcotic and stimulant drugs with high potential for dependence and abuse, but still having therapeutic value. Other drugs in this category include Cocaine, Methadone, Oxycontin, Morphine, Ritalin, and Fentanyl.
In the wake of a prescription drug abuse epidemic in this country, the DEA has reversed the 30-day rule, which was initially put in place to reduce the abuse of schedule II drugs. According to the CDC, the number of unintentional poisoning deaths increased from 12,186 in 1999 to 20,950 in 2004. The largest increases for prescription drug deaths were in the "other and unspecified" drug, psychotherapeutic drug, and "narcotic and hallucinogen" drug categories.[i] The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) has stated that non-medical use or abuse of prescription drugs is a serious and growing public health problem in this country an estimated 48 million people (ages 12 and older) have used prescription drugs for non-medical reasons in their lifetimes.[ii]

The DEA must reverse this deadly decision in order to keep these deadly drugs off the street. This decision is NOT going to curb the epidemic currently taking place in this country with prescription drug deaths. How is putting more drugs on the street protecting the public???
Petition Against 90 Day Supply of Schedule II Drugs
Deaths from accidental prescription drug overdose on rise in New MexicoPrescription Drug Abuse & Deaths - Remember J.P.
Newswise — Accidental overdose deaths in New Mexico caused by prescription drugs increased at a higher rate than those caused by illegal drugs such as heroin and cocaine, according to a new study covering a 10-year period.
Opioid pain relievers — such as codeine, Demerol and morphine — accounted for the majority of the deaths caused by prescription drugs in the study from the May American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
“The increasing role of opioid painkillers in unintentional drug overdose deaths suggests that overdose prevention efforts would be well targeted at this drug class,” said lead researcher Mark Mueller, an epidemiologist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Using statewide medical examiner reports, Mueller and colleagues determined that of the 765 prescription drug-related overdose deaths in New Mexico from 1994 to 2003, more than three-fourths were caused by opioid pain relievers. A third of deaths were caused by tranquilizers, and one-quarter were caused by antidepressants. (Because some deaths were caused by multiple drugs, the total exceeds 100 percent.)
Unintentional prescription drug overdoses accounted for 1.9 deaths out of 100,000 deaths at the beginning of the study period, rising to 5.3 overdose deaths out of 100,000 deaths. This represented a 179-percent increase over a decade, compared with the 121-percent rise in unintentional overdose deaths due to illegal drugs.
New Mexico has had the highest drug-induced death rate in the United States since the 1990s, according to background information in the study.
Sidney Schnoll, clinical professor of internal medicine and psychiatry at the Medical College of Virginia, acknowledged that prescription drug abuse is a growing problem. “However, I would be concerned about extrapolating these findings. New Mexico is a relatively rural state, and one of the things we know about prescription drug abuse, particularly prescription opioid abuse, is that it is more of a problem of rural areas than urban areas,” Schnoll said.
Although this is the first study to evaluate the contribution of prescription drugs to the unintentional overdose death rate in New Mexico, the authors say that such deaths are increasing around the world in tandem with increasing medical and nonmedical use of prescription drugs, especially narcotic pain relievers.
“While we would all agree on the value of properly prescribed and used opioids, this study illustrates the need to reinforce proper prescribing practices and usage of prescription drugs, particularly opioid painkillers,” said Mueller. “It will also be important to find new ways to prevent deaths due to prescription drugs acquired through street diversion.”
Arrest of Gore's Son Spotlights Prescription Drug Abuse
Drug abuse experts say the arrest of Al Gore's son underscores the growing problem of prescription drug abuse among America's youth. College students use the stimulant Adderall, an attention deficit drug, to get a speedy high or pull all-nighters.
The other drugs police say they found in Al Gore III's possession — marijuana Xanax, Valium and Vicodin — also are campus favorites, experts say.
"Al Gore's son is just like everyone else's," said Dr. Donald Misch, director of health services at Northwestern University in Evanston. "The only thing missing was the No. 1 abused drug, which is alcohol."
Students commonly pair pills with beer and cigarettes, experts say. They trade tips about the effects of prescription drugs on networking sites like Facebook and trade pills they've stolen from home medicine cabinets, ordered on the Internet or taken from friends with legitimate prescriptions.
Prescription drug abuse among 18- to 25-year-olds rose 17 percent from 2002 to 2005, according to the White House drug policy office. In 2004 and again in 2005, there were more new abusers of prescription drugs than new users of any illicit drug.
Young people mistakenly believe prescription drugs are safer than street drugs, doctors say. But accidental prescription drug deaths are rising and students who abuse pills are more likely to drive fast, binge-drink and engage in other dangerous behaviors.
The White House plans a national advertising campaign aimed at getting parents to clean out their medicine cabinets and lock up any prescription drugs they need, said deputy drug czar Scott Burns.
"We found in focus groups of young people across the country that in large measure they're getting the drugs from their own medicine cabinets and the Internet," Burns said. Some Web pharmacies deliver ordered drugs without legitimate prescriptions, but other sites steal credit card information and never fill orders, Burns said.
Nearly 60 percent of Americans who report abusing prescription drugs say they get them from friends or family, according to the 2006 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, the largest survey on substance abuse in the country with about 70,000 participants.
According to another survey, the 2005 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, there are 14.6 million current marijuana users and 6.4 million prescription drug abusers, with most prescription drug abusers using painkillers such as Vicodin. Cocaine ranked third, with 2.4 million current users.
The same survey found the annual average number of new abusers of prescription pain relievers was 2.4 million, edging out the 2.1 million new users of marijuana.
Al Gore III, 24, was driving about 100 mph on the San Diego Freeway when he was pulled over Wednesday. He was arrested for illegally possessing marijuana and prescription drugs. While a student at Harvard University, he was arrested in 2003 for marijuana possession.
Former Vice President Al Gore said Thursday his son is getting treatment.
The drugs police say they found when they searched the young Gore's car are commonly found on campus, according to experts.
Vicodin, a brand name for acetaminophen and hydrocodone, is a painkiller that works by attaching to opioid receptors in the brain; it can be addictive and can bring on a feeling of euphoria when abused. Xanax (alprazolam) and Valium (diazepam) are both used to treat anxiety and can cause withdrawal symptoms when stopped suddenly; they produce feelings of relaxation or drowsiness.
Adderall (dextroamphetamine and amphetamine) is used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and can cause sudden death or serious heart problems, especially if misused. Students crush and snort it to get a fast rush or swallow the pills to stay awake for a late night of studying.
Abuse of Adderall and other prescription stimulants is more common on college campuses than among young adults not attending college, experts say.
A study published in the medical journal Addiction in 2005 found that rates of abuse of prescription stimulants including Adderall were higher at northeastern colleges and schools with more competitive admission standards. About 4 percent of college students in that study reported non-medical use of prescription stimulants in the past year.
Al Gore III's arrest may raise awareness among parents, Misch said.
"This is an opportunity for people to understand this is happening in your household," he said. "These are your kids. The drug dealers they're going to are their doctors, their parents and their friends."
Pharm Parties
Prescription Drug Abuse & Deaths - Remember J.P.When you hear "pharm parties," you probably think teens out on a farm having a party. But that's no longer the case, the pharm stands for pharmaceutical.

And the parties involves a deadly mix of prescription drugs, OTC drugs, and alcohol.

It starts with handfuls of prescription pills, usually painkiller like Viocodin and OxyContin. Over the counter drugs are sometimes added in, and you end up with a deadly mix, nicknamed "trail mix" or "skittles"

Marcus Hurt, a youth counselor at Quincy's Recovery Resources said, "Tend to be dumping all the pills into one community bowl and then just dipping in."

Party go-ers then distribute the goods out in handfuls at what are called "pharm parties" or "candy dishing"

Hurt said, "I think it's more prevalent than people may think. Because most people think of drugs as illegal so that's what gets the attention. I've had a few individuals one who called it "skittling."

"Skittling" is just about as dangerous as you can get in a teen's party world.

Pamela Lightle, a counselor at Hannibal's Family Resource Center said, "Of course death, heart papulations, seizures, vomiting."

But it's becoming increasing popular party drug. Hurt says it doesn't have the stigma in many kids' eyes that other carry.

Hurt said, "Pharm parties tend to be a high brow situation, kids you don't normally expect."

Hurt says parents and teachers need to be on the look out for warning signs for the extreme prescription drug abuse, like empty or missing pills, bottles, and packages.

FDA Warns that Paxil Makes Depressed Adults Suicidal
By Peter R. Breggin, M.D.
Prescription Drug Abuse & Deaths - Remember J.P.Getting the FDA to move forward by presenting it with scientific data is like using a peacock feather to tickle a sleeping giant tortoise on its shell. Many people die before the agency opens its eyes and then it barely reacts at all.
Bloated with conflicts of interest, under the best of conditions the FDA is barely able to drag itself along the ground. Slowly, oh, so slowly, it inches its way toward the obvious conclusion it can never quite reach: Antidepressants cause suicide; therefore, they aren’t antidepressants at all. These drugs don’t cure depression—and they frequently cause or worsen it. Regarding the most dreadful risk of depression, suicide, so-called antidepressants put depressed people of all ages at much greater risk of killing themselves.

The FDA Confirms Antidepressant-Induced Suicidality in Adults

So, after years of prodding by me and more lately by a handful of other professionals, what new point in its journey has the FDA tortoise reached? In a May 2006 release in collaboration with the manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), the FDA has acknowledged the antidepressant Paxil causes a statistically significant increased rate of suicidality in depressed adults as measured in controlled clinical trials.<!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[1]<!--[endif]--> The results are based on a re-analysis of all adult controlled clinical trials that compared Paxil with placebo. Buried in the FDA/GSK release is an astounding fact: Depressed people are 6.4 times more likely to become suicidal while taking an antidepressant than while taking a sugar pill.<!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[2]<!--[endif]--> No other antidepressants were mentioned in the FDA’s warning but all SSRI antidepressants share a common profile of adverse mental and behavioral effects, including Paxil, Prozac, Zoloft, Celexa, Luvox, and Lexapro. Several other relatively new antidepressants have also been implicated in producing similar psychiatric abnormalities, including Wellbutrin, Effexor, Serzone, and Cymbalta. All of the newer antidepressants can produce stimulation or activation with the potential for increased agitation, anxiety, mood instability, disinhibition, irritability, aggression, hostility, mania, and crashing into depression and suicide. They can also cause a flattening of emotional responses, including a loss of caring, that can unleash dangerous actions.<!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[3]<!--[endif]--> It is hard to cheer the FDA when in books and scientific reports, I’ve been warning about the risk of antidepressant-induced suicide (and violence) for fifteen years, starting in1991 with Toxic Psychiatry. My most comprehensive scientific review of the subject was published in 2003.<!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[4]<!--[endif]--> In more recent years, other professionals have also joined the fray, especially Harvard psychiatrist Joseph Glenmullen. Scientific reviews confirmed that antidepressants cause suicidality in children and adults,<!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[5]<!--[endif]--> but the FDA delayed acting on mounting evidence. To this day, the agency waffles about the importance of the antidepressant suicide risk. Thus far it has focused only on Paxil in regard to adult suicide and it has hinted that the risk may be slight when it is catastrophic. It also continues to avoid facing evidence that the drugs cause violence. A few weeks before the FDA and GSK published their recent admission that Paxil can make adults more suicidal, I published a special report in Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry in which I released previously suppressed data indicating that GSK had manipulated its research results to hide the risk of Paxil-induced suicidality<!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[6]<!--[endif]--> (available on www.breggin.com). I based my observations on suppressed company data that I had discovered during a three-day investigation inside the drug company’s secret files, working as a medical expert in a murder-suicide product liability case against the company. Simultaneously, I published on my website the original product liability report with all the scientific data that I had unearthed during those three days. More than a year earlier, I had informed the FDA at two of its public hearings that I possessed this sealed smoking gun. They never responded to me directly. Perhaps they are responding to me now.

The Struggle to Enlighten the Public, the Profession and the FDA

Beginning with the widespread use of Prozac in the early 1990s, the struggle to gain public and professional recognition of antidepressant-induced suicide and violence has a long and stormy history. Drug advocates accused critics of Prozac of taking away a “lifesaving” treatment from depressed patients. Ironically, these same drug advocates would never be able prove that Prozac or any other antidepressant can reduce the suicide rate; but the evidence has mounted, ultimately proving that these drugs can increase suicide and violence. The struggle peaked in 1994 when I testified against Eli Lilly in a case of Prozac-induced suicide and mass murder. My testimony, in effect, was that the perpetrator, Joseph Wesbecker, hadn’t gone “postal,” he’d gone “Prozacal.” After the drug company won a split jury decision, the judge realized that the trial had been fixed. The plaintiffs had been paid off by the drug company to conduct a fake trial that was rigged to end in favor of the drug company. The outraged judge voided the verdict. I have documented these events, including the judge’s conclusions, in numerous sources including Brain-Disabling Treatments in Psychiatry (1997). The Prozac-soaked media simply ignored this bombshell. There were no headlines, “Drug Company Fakes Trial; Data Reveals that Prozac Causes Suicide and Violence.” If either the media or the FDA had examined the data I generated for that legal case, followed by the fixing of the trial, it might not have taken twelve more years for the government and GSK to acknowledge that Paxil causes suicidality in children and adults. Meanwhile, the FDA and the antidepressant manufacturers continue to deny that the drugs also cause violence. Because of this delay, many lives continue to come to tragic ends because of this delay.

Continued Obfuscation

The FDA and GSK continue to obfuscate the true risk in their May 2006 announcement concerning Paxil-induced suicidality in depressed adults. They emphasize the supposedly slight increase in suicidality among young adults (through age thirty) who take Paxil for a variety of conditions, including for depression, panic attacks, anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Far more important is the statistically significant increase in suicidality in all ages of depressed adults. It’s worth restating that depressed people getting Paxil were 6.4 times more likely to display suicidal thoughts and behavior than depressed people taking a sugar pill. In regard to suicide—the most devastating risk associated with antidepressants—it is safer for depressed persons to stay off the drug! The FDA allowed the Paxil manufacturer to soft pedal the results by claiming, for example, that the results could be compounded by the fact that suicide is an aspect of “psychiatric illnesses.” This is nonsense—and every scientist knows it. Since both groups were depressed, and since they differed only in the substances they were given to take, Paxil and not depression was the cause of this astronomical increase in suicidality. If depression had caused the increased suicidality, then the placebo patients—who lacked the supposed benefit of an antidepressant effect—would have suffered a much higher rate of suicidality than the Paxil patients. Instead, they had a much lower rate. In other words, because the antidepressants were supposed to be helping the depressed patients, the relative ineffectiveness of the sugar pill should led to more suicidality than the drug, not less. The FDA, the drug company, and the media ignored this important fact. Conventional assumptions would have predicted increased suicidality on placebo instead of increased suicidality on Paxil. It’s a complete reversal of the expected outcome, underscoring the seriousness of finding increased suicidality on the drug.

The Real-Life Risk Is Much Greater than Described

It’s nothing short of a miracle that GSK-sponsored Prescription Drug Abuse & Deaths - Remember J.P.clinical trials have demonstrated the increased risk of suicidality from antidepressants. If not a miracle, it’s a confirmation that the risk is enormous—far more so than indicated by the studies. Keep in mind that controlled clinical trials are planned by the drug companies, supervised by the drug companies, and carried out by paid lackeys of the drug companies. Keep in mind that all the data analysis is done at drug company headquarters by drug company execs. Keep in mind that the trials are constructed in order to prove the usefulness of the drug and to minimize its adverse effects such as suicidality. Keep in mind that the controlled clinical trials are very short, usually 4-6 weeks long, and that prescreening excludes suicidal and psychotic patients from participating in the studies. In real-life medical practice, the rate of drug-induced suicidality will be much higher than in the research-oriented controlled clinical trials. In actual practice, many patients are already suicidal when they are started on the drug, increasingly the likelihood that the drug will push them over into self-injurious behavior. In actual practice, compared to controlled clinical trials used for research, busy doctors provide much less supervision or monitoring, the patients are almost never tested or evaluated for suicidality, multiple drugs are often given at once, and the doctors know little about looking for adverse effects on the mind. If Paxil increased the rate of suicidality by more than six times in the drug company’s controlled clinical trials, it may be doing so by sixty times in actual practice. We can’t determine exactly how much greater the risk will be in clinical practice but it will be astronomically greater.

And the Antidepressants Don’t Even Work

Meanwhile, a comprehensive review of all studies of antidepressant drugs submitted for approval to the FDA showed that when the studies are taken as a whole, antidepressants don’t work.<!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[7]<!--[endif]--> A drug company may perform twenty studies in an attempt to show efficacy. Exemplified by the case of Prozac, as I described in Talking Back to Prozac (1994), as long as two studies show a positive effective, the FDA will approve the drug. If a drug company cannot massage their self-generated data sufficiently to obtain a positive result in two out of twenty clinical trials, the company’s paid consultants and employees don’t deserve to stay employed. And of course, they won’t stay employed if they fail to meet the company’s needs to promote new products. Of course, many people feel helped by antidepressants, as well as by many other psychiatric and even psychoactive drugs. The placebo effect is enormous. In addition, the artificial euphoria or emotional flattening produced at times by antidepressants may provide temporary relief at the cost of rationality or effective dealing with life. It’s time to say again what I’ve been saying for too many years on end. The antidepressants aren’t antidepressants. They are more likely to make a person worse than better. More tragically, these toxic agents push may people over the brink into suicide and violence. It’s astonishing as I approach my 70th birthday that the FDA is beginning to catch up with what I’ve been saying for decades in regard to the limits of drugging children and adults to control their emotions and behavior. It’s gratifying but also a little frustrating. No, I don’t have a biochemical imbalance, I am outraged that my profession has consistently tried to foist off self-serving mythology as science and that so many people have been damaged or killed by the effects of the false biochemical diagnoses and toxic medications. Meanwhile, the antidepressants are very difficult to stop taking. Withdrawal from antidepressants can lead to “crashing,” with agitation, violence and suicide. Withdrawal from these noxious drugs should be done slowly with experienced clinical supervision. These drugs are not only unsafe to start—they are dangerous to stop. The best approach to antidepressants: Don’t start taking them.
Prescription Drug Abuse & Deaths - Remember J.P.Generation Rx: National Study Confirms Abuse of Prescription and Over-the-Counter Drugs
5/15/2006 12:49:41 PM
Today’s teens are more likely to abuse Rx and OTC medications than many illegal drugs and think abusing medicines to get high is ‘safer’ than using illegal drugs.


Washington, D.C., May 16, 2006 – The intentional abuse of prescription (Rx) and over-the-counter (OTC) medications to get high is now an entrenched behavior among today’s teen population, according to a national study released by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America®.

The Partnership’s 18th annual study of teen drug use and attitudes confirms that Generation Rx has arrived as an alarming number of today’s teenagers are more likely to have abused Rx and OTC medications than a variety of illegal drugs like Ecstasy, cocaine, crack and meth. Nearly one in five teens (19 percent or 4.5 million) report abusing prescription medications to get high; and one in 10 (10 percent or 2.4 million) report abusing cough medicine to get high.

“This study removes any doubt that intentional abuse of medications among teens is a real issue threatening the health and well-being of American families,” said Steve Pasierb, president & CEO of the Partnership. “We have a situation where a widespread and dangerous teen behavior has become normalized and has found its way into our homes. These findings should serve as a wake-up call to parents that their teen is facing a drug landscape that did not exist when they were teens. The abuse of prescription and over-the-counter drugs has taken root among America’s teens and the behavior is not registering with parents. Unless we all take action, it is a problem that will only get worse.”

Released today in Washington, D.C., the 2005 Partnership Attitude Tracking Study (PATS) surveyed more than 7,300 teenagers in grades 7-12 (margin of error: +/-1.5 percent). Top-line findings from this nationally projectable tracking study show the culture of “pharming” – abusing a host of medicines and chemical products intentionally to get high – has established itself among America’s teen population:

  • Nearly one in five (19 percent or 4.5 million) teens has tried prescription medication (pain relievers such as Vicodin and OxyContin; stimulants like Ritalin and Adderall) to get high
  • One in 10 (10 percent or 2.4 million) teens report abusing cough medicine to get high
  • Abuse of Rx and OTC medications is on par or higher than the abuse of illegal drugs such as Ecstasy (8 percent), cocaine/crack (10 percent), methamphetamine (8 percent) and heroin (5 percent).
“There is a world of difference between good medicine and bad behavior,” said Dr. Michael Maves, executive vice president & CEO of the American Medical Association and a Partnership board member. “When these medicines are abused – when they are used for anything other than their intended and approved purpose – they can be every bit as dangerous as illegal street drugs.”

Teens Think Intentionally Abusing Medicines to Get High is ‘Safer’ Than Using Illegal Drugs

According to the data, an alarming number of teens have a false sense of security about the safety of abusing Rx and OTC medications:

  • Two in five teens (40 percent or 9.4 million) agree that Rx medicines, even if they are not prescribed by a doctor, are “much safer” to use than illegal drugs;
  • Nearly one-third of teens (31 percent or 7.3 million) believe there’s “nothing wrong” with using Rx medicines without a prescription “once in a while;”
  • Nearly three out of 10 teens (29 percent or 6.8 million) believe prescription pain relievers – even if not prescribed by a doctor – are not addictive; and
  • More than half of teens (55 percent or 13 million) don’t agree strongly that using cough medicines to get high is risky.
The study also found teens believe a key driver for abusing prescription pain relievers is their widespread availability and easy access. According to the data, more than three in five teens say Rx pain relievers are easy to get from parents’ medicine cabinets; half of teens say they’re easy to get through other people’s prescriptions; and more than half of teens say pain relievers are “available everywhere;” 43 percent of teens believe pain relievers are cheap and 35 percent believe they are safer to use than illegal drugs.

“What we have here is a case of misinformation and poor attitudes – teens seeing few health risks associated with intentional abuse – teamed with easy access at home and via the Internet. Together it’s a potentially lethal combination,” said Pasierb.

Parents Completely Unaware of Teens’ Intentional Abuse of Medications

Parents are crucial in helping prevent this behavior, but are largely unaware and feel ill-equipped to respond. Parents must educate themselves and get through to their kids:

  • Kids who learn a lot about the risks of drugs at home are up to 50 percent less likely to use drugs;
  • Nine out of 10 parents of teens (92 percent or 22 million) say they have talked to their teen about the dangers of drugs, yet fewer than one third of teens (31 percent or 7.4 million) say they “learn a lot about the risks of drugs” from their parents.
  • While three out of five parents report discussing drugs like marijuana “a lot” with their children, only a third of parents report discussing the risks of using prescription medicines or non-prescription cold or cough medicine to get high.
“Today’s cohort of parents is the most drug-experienced in history, but they do not understand this new drug abuse behavior among their teens,” said Roy Bostock, chairman of the Partnership. “They are looking for the classic signs of illegal drug abuse and are missing this trend. Parents need to be aware that the drugs their teens abuse today, including medicines, are not the drugs from decades past. Only through education and parental involvement can this trend be reversed.”

Partnership Launches First National Rx and OTC Medicine Abuse Education Campaign

The Partnership’s annual tracking study – the largest, ongoing analysis of drug-related attitudes in the country – began measuring teen abuse of select medications in 2003. With three years of data in hand and last year’s data heralding the emergence of this new category of substance abuse, the Partnership recognized this shift in teen drug abuse behavior as one of the most significant in recent history and immediately began developing a necessary prevention and education campaign directed at parents.

Launching today, the campaign is a comprehensive, multi-year prevention communications effort targeting the abuse of Rx and OTC medications. The Partnership created this effort with support from the Consumer Healthcare Products Association and its member companies. The campaign speaks directly to parents by alerting them that their own homes are easily accessible sources for teens to obtain and abuse these medications. The campaign is comprised of hard-hitting television, newspaper, magazine and radio messages, a multifaceted interactive online component, and is supplemented by informational brochures to help parents get the conversation started with their teen. A multi-faceted public relations effort will provide additional media support for the campaign.

The campaign also features an innovative online component consisting of unique and engaging websites focused on the dangers of abusing cough medicine/dextromethorphan (dextromethorphan, or DXM, is the active ingredient in cough medicine). The Partnership’s Web site features comprehensive online content on the abuse of prescription drugs. Original online content created specifically for parents and teens on the abuse of cough medicine can be found at:

“The message of this campaign can be summed up in three words,” Pasierb said. “Educate, communicate and safeguard. Educate yourself about the medications kids are abusing. Communicate with your kids and dispel the notion – for yourself as well as for your kids – that these medicines can be safely abused. And safeguard your medications by learning which ones can be abused, limit access to them and keep track of the quantities you have in your home. Make sure your friends do the same.”

All advertising for the campaign was created pro bono by advertising agencies Grey, DDB Chicago, Lumina Films and Dieste Harmel & Partners (Spanish-language), along with a number of production companies that donated their time and effort. All actors appear in campaign ads pro bono through the generosity of the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. The Rx and OTC education effort will be a priority campaign for the Partnership, which will work directly with national and local media to gain significant media placements for campaign messages.

Steady Decline in Teen Drug Use, With Marked Areas of Concern

The 2005 PATS study confirms that overall substance abuse is steadily declining among teens. The data show noteworthy decreases in teens’ use of tobacco, and steady declines in the number of teens using alcohol. Anti-marijuana attitudes have continued to strengthen since 1998 with 37 percent of teens reporting experimentation with the drug, compared to 42 percent in 1998. Ecstasy use also continues to decline with lifetime trials at 8 percent compared to 12 percent in 2001. Use of cocaine or crack – either lifetime trial, past year and past month – remain stable at 8 percent.

However, the PATS data has identified inhalants and methamphetamine abuse as two areas that are cause for concern and careful monitoring:

  • Inhalants (inhaled fumes of household products) – Teen trial of inhalants has increased over the past three years to an alarming 20 percent and inhalants are currently the second most abused substances behind marijuana (37 percent). While all measures of teen inhalant abuse have not reached the record highs of 1998, falling perceptions of risk indicate that additional increases in use are likely to follow.
  • Methamphetamine or meth (stimulant) – Teen perception of the risks associated with both trying or using meth regularly have steadily increased over the last three years and this year’s data show usage stabilized at 8 percent at the national level. While teen use of meth is relatively low, only 54 percent of teens see great risk in trying meth once or twice.
  • “Teens’ low perception of risk in abusing a drug can lead to abuse,” said Pasierb. “History would tell us that we need to stay out in front of meth and inhalants before teen use of these drugs increases.”




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Coroner sees rise in prescription drug overdoses
By JOSHUA WOLFSON
Star-Tribune staff writer Friday, January 18, 2008
[oas:casperstartrib une.net/news/ casper/top: Middle1]

Five years ago, fatal overdoses in Natrona County usually stemmed from drugs made in clandestine labs or sold on the street.

These days, the drugs that kill are just as likely to come from a pharmacy.

Fatal prescription drug overdoses appear to be on the rise, according to Chief Deputy Corner Gary Hazen. Instead of methamphetamine, the culprits today are medications like OxyContin and Methadone.

"The drug of choice has changed from street drugs to pharmaceuticals, " Hazen said. "It's rare that we have meth deaths. Now it's all pills."
In the past week, the coroner's office has investigated three deaths thought to have resulted from prescription drug overdoses.

All three people were in their 30s. All three had ingested opiates -- drugs that contain opium or its derivatives. Only one is being investigated as a possible suicide.

"This week has been horrible for us," Hazen said.

Last year, six people died from drug overdoses in Natrona County, according to records provided by the coroner's office. Only one tested positive for methamphetamine use. Between the other five cases, tests found opiates, alcohol, cannabinoids, sedatives and Methadone -- a synthetic narcotic commonly used to treat heroin addiction.

The prescription drug problem isn't limited to the Casper area. The National Institute on Drug abuse has called prescription drug abuse a growing health problem across the country. An estimated 48 million people have used prescription drugs for non-medical reasons, according to a report by the institute.

Abuse of narcotic pain relievers can slow or stop a person's breathing, according to the Office of National Drug Control Policy. Abuse of sedatives can lead to seizures, respiratory depression and decreased heart rate.

Hazen's experience seems to fit with the observations of Casper police and substance abuse experts, who see prescription drug abuse rising at a time when methamphetamine use appears on the decline.

Prescription drugs have even become a target in home thefts, said Casper police Sgt. Mark Trimble.

"We are seeing a pretty sizable upswing of people being arrested for that type of controlled substance," he said.

Opiate-based painkillers, such as OxyContin, are the most prevalent of the abused prescription drugs that police come across, Trimble added.

In addition to theft, prescription drugs can be obtained through fraud and a phenomenon called "doctor shopping." With doctor shopping, a person obtains multiple prescriptions from different doctors or dentists, Hazen said.

Other Wyoming counties have also experience prescription drug overdoses, although the overall number of overdoses remains small. For example, Albany and Campbell counties reported deaths last year due to prescription drug overdoses.

"I have seen, just in my tenure, at least a couple of deaths that were directly attributable to prescribed pain medications, " said Albany County Coroner Thomas Furgeson, who took office last year. "One was most definitely an overdose. The other, the circumstances preclude being able to say definitively if a painkiller was the culprit. But it was a contributor to the death."

However, Furgeson cautioned that the numbers in his county were too small to draw conclusions about overdose trends.

Reach Joshua Wolfson at (307) 266-0582 or at josh.wolfson@ trib.com.







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