Prescription Drug Abuse Doubled in U.S.

A recent study reports that prescription drug abuse in the United States nearly doubled from 7.8 million to 15.1 million abusers.

Among teens, abuse has tripled, the studies show. Close to 10 percent of children ages 12 to 17 abused at least one type of prescription drug according to the study.

Signs that a teen might be involved with drugs include withdrawal from the family and dropping grades. Some teens who had previous interest in school activities no longer participate because of drug or alcohol use. Often, teen drug abuse accompanies a change in their peer group.

Parents should look at whether old friends no longer stop by or if the teen hides new friends. Teen abusers are often frequent liars, and parents should inquire about activities days later to see if the stories still match.

Experts agree that more prescription medications are on the streets. Illegal use of prescription drugs is much more difficult to combat than any other type of illicit substance. The drugs – unlike marijuana and cocaine – aren’t inherently illegal, and it takes substantially more investigation to get the evidence needed for conviction. Abuse of prescriptions also involves a different kind of offender, and addictions begin differently than they do for other substances. A lot of people who get addicted (to prescriptions) don’t set out to do that. They’re not drug abusers in the classic sense. They get the drugs for perfectly legitimate reasons.

But once they’re addicted and prescriptions run out, crime can become more prevalent. Between 1992 and 2002 the number of substance abuse treatment admissions increased by 79%. There were 32,800 additional treatment admissions where tranquilizers were the second or third drug of abuse. Controlled substances were implicated in nearly 30 percent of drug related emergency room deaths in 2002.

As if the abuse of the prescription drugs alone aren’t enough, the survey also reported that teens who abuse controlled prescription drugs are much likelier to use alcohol, marijuana, heroin, ecstasy and cocaine, compared to teenagers who did not abuse prescription drugs.