Don’t be fooled into thinking prescription drugs are safe to use recreationally. According to WhiteHouse.gov, nearly a third of people over 12 who used drugs for the first time in 2009 began by using a prescription drug without the guidance of a doctor.

In addition to being a gateway to dangerous drug abuse habits, prescription drugs can lead to serious dependence, addiction and death. Learn more from these common drug abuse myths.

Myth: Prescription drugs are safe because they come from doctors.

Fact: When a doctor prescribes a serious opiate or other type of drug, they expect the patient to take that drug exactly as prescribed. Even then, there are known risks that are clearly described in the paperwork that comes with the drugs from the pharmacy. Many medical treatments, including drugs, come with risks. This is one of the reasons why it’s especially important not to take prescription drugs without your doctor’s care, and to avoid taking them if there are other options for pain or symptom management. Many prescription drugs pose a risk of overdose that can cause death.

Myth: You can’t become addicted to prescription drugs.

Fact: Prescription drugs can be as addictive as any other types of street drugs. Painkillers are especially dangerous when abused or used too often, even as prescribed. Opiods can cause physical dependence and addiction, both of which can potentially devastate a user’s life and cause physical withdrawal symptoms. If you or a loved one is experiencing drug dependence or addiction, find a treatment center.

Myth: It’s okay to take someone else’s prescription.

Fact:  Just because someone else was prescribed a medication doesn’t mean it’s safe or legal for you to take it. Sharing or selling prescription medication can lead to felony charges. This isn’t something to take lightly.  Because prescription drug abuse is becoming an epidemic in the United States, lawmakers and enforcers, as well as health professionals, are especially concerned with cracking down on prescription abuse and doctor shopping. If a friend offers you prescription drugs, such as narcotic painkillers, it’s still illegal and potentially dangerous. Consider what might happen if you had a dangerous allergic reaction or an overdose and needed emergency assistance. Both you and your friend could end up behind bars over one bad choice.

Related posts:
The Definition of Gateway Drugs
Is Your Friend Using Drugs?
Finding Healthy Alternative “Addictions” to Drugs

Most drivers and passengers are aware of the risks of drunk driving. But are you aware of the risks of drugged driving?  From cold medicine to prescription medication to illegal substances, drugs can affect the way you drive and may significantly impair your ability to drive safely.

Consider the Facts

• According to the DEA, 3.6% of the U.S. population reported driving under the influence of illegal drugs in 2001.
• The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reported that illegal drugs are used by approximately 10-22 percent of drivers involved in all motor vehicle crashes.
• According to the White House report on drugged driving, even drugs prescribed by a physician, can impair perception, judgment, motor skills, and memory

The Risks
Not every drug affects people the same way. One illegal drug might slow a driver down, causing delayed reaction times and additional risks as a result. Another might impair judgment, causing erratic or reckless driving. Another drug might cause changes in behavior that lead to aggressive driving. Some painkillers make drivers sleepy and sluggish, and thus dangerous behind the wheel. Because drivers may have both alcohol and drugs in their system, it isn’t always easy to pinpoint exactly what caused the impairment. It’s difficult to characterize the specific impairments of driving drugged because of the broad spectrum of effects of being on various drugs. Despite this, it’s important to focus on the fact that any drug that affects things like mood, judgment and motor skills has the ability to significantly impair driving.

The Bottom Line
Drugged drivers shouldn’t get behind the wheel. Passengers should not get in the car with someone who is on drugs. Teens may not understand that smoking a joint and driving is as serious as having several beers and driving. Unfortunately, this kind of casual attitude toward drugged driving can lead to motor vehicle accidents and death. Consider that according to the CDC, motor vehicle accidents are the leading cause of death among young people aged 16 to 19. Set an example by never getting behind the wheel when taking drugs that can cause impairment. Talk to your teen about drugged driving and the risks. Make sure that your teen understands that drugged driving and drunk driving are equally risky and illegal.

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Five Tough Questions You Should Ask Your High Schooler
Tips for a Safe and Successful School Year
The Definition of Gateway Drugs

Parents have become adept at teaching their children about the dangers of illegal drugs. The iconic “Just Say No” catch phrase has guided a generation of parents trying to steer their children away from cocaine, heroin, and other dangerous drugs. However, the most commonly abused drugs can be found in our own medicine cabinet. These are also the mostly easily accessible drugs. No drug dealer required!

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, approximately 15 million Americans reported using a prescription drug for nonmedical reasons at least once during the year. The biggest perpetrators? Teenagers. Nearly 1 in 5 teens have abused prescription drugs. Scarier than that, the most common abusers of prescription drugs are 12- to 13-year-olds. Here in Pinellas County, we are at the epicenter of this dangerous trend.

The threat of prescription drug abuse is real. Knowledge of which prescription drugs are most abused and what they are called is critical. Below is a list of these drugs, their street names (children rarely refer to them by their common name), and their side effects.

Vicodin, OxyContin, Percocet, Morphine, Codeine: Hillbilly Heroin, Oxy Vike, Watson-387, Tuss, Big Boys, Cotton, OC, Cotton, Percs, Morph, Kicker, Happy Pills.

Side effects: These drugs are taken for pain relief, euphoria, and drowsiness. They also can cause respiratory depression and arrest, nausea, confusion, constipation, coma and addiction.

Sedatives and tranquilizers, including barbiturates: Chill Pills, French Fries, Tranqs, Barbs, reds, yellows, yellow jackets, candy, A-minus, zombie pills.

Side effects: These drugs are taken to reduce pain and anxiety, grant a feeling of well-being, and lower inhibitions. They can also cause slowed pulse and breathing, lowered blood pressure, poor concentration, fatigue, impaired coordination, memory loss, respiratory depression, and addiction.

Stimulants, including Ritalin and Adderall: (Ritalin) Rid, Vitamin R, Jif, R-ball, Rittys, Rits; (Adderall) Beans, Black Beauties, Christmas Trees, Double Trouble

Side effects: These drugs are taken to achieve feelings of exhilaration, energy, and increased mental alertness. They can also cause rapid or irregular heartbeat, reduced appetite, weight loss, and heart failure.

Knowing more about the pressures and lingo that your children will face can give you the upper hand when it comes to keeping kids off of prescription drugs. If you are looking to be more involved in the fight against substance abuse in and around Pinellas County please visit us online.

Sources:

Prescription Drug Abuse (www.drugabuse.gov)

Prescription Drug Abuse Chart (National Institute on Drug Abuse)

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Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office recently announced that, starting today, residents no longer have to wait for a special event to drop off their unused or expired prescription medicines. Permanent drop-off containers will be located in the lobbies of the Sheriff’s Administration Building and the North District Station.

To make sure prescription and over-the-counter drugs don’t end up in the wrong hands, the LiveFree! Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition of Pinellas County (LiveFree!) and Operation PAR are partnering with the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office to sponsor one of the drop-off containers.

Prescription drugs’ ending up in the wrong hands is a grave concern in Pinellas County. According to the Florida Youth Substance Abuse Survey, in 2010 9.2% of Pinellas County high school students and 5.9% of Pinellas County middle school students reported using prescription pain relievers on at least one occasion in their lifetime. In 2009 in Pinellas County, there were 558 deaths where a “tracked drug” was present in a decedent at the time of death when the Medical Examiner performed toxicology testing. There were 130 decedents where oxycodone was identified as the cause of death and 55 descendents where the drug was identified as present at the time of death. There were 55 decedents where alprazolam was identified as the cause of death and 101 descendents where the drug was identified as present at the time of death. .

If you would like to set up an interview about this issue with a member of the LiveFree! Coalition, please call 813-503-5658.

The LiveFree! Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition consists of members of the community coming together to address alcohol and other drug use in Pinellas County among young adults and middle and high school students by creating more systematic, environmental strategies and promoting the use of evidence-based prevention programs. LiveFree! encourages community advocacy, involving youth, law enforcement, parents and businesses in coalition activities, and promoting public awareness of substance abuse in Pinellas County. For more information on LiveFree! or to get a map of participating Operation Medicine Cabinet locations in Pinellas County, please visit http://www.pinellascoalition.com

Parents, your worries about whether or not your teenager will be tempted to abuse drugs may start closer to home than you think. Your medicine cabinet is a prime target for teenagers looking to get high by taking your prescription medication. It turns out that prescription drug abuse is rapidly increasing, and possibly serving as a gateway drug to the use of street drugs.

By the numbers

The number of Americans abusing prescription medication is higher than the number of people using heroin and cocaine combined. And like a lot of unwanted behaviors, that trend is carrying over into the younger generation. According to a recent poll, more than 50 percent of teenagers in the United States admitted to stealing medication from their parents or their friend’s parents.

What drugs are abused?

Sedatives, tranquilizers, uppers and pain medication are the most commonly abused prescription medications among young people. Teenagers may turn to sedatives or tranquilizers for help through a stressful time in their lives. Some kids like the opposite effects of feeling revved up, much like being on speed. Abusing Ritalin and other attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder drugs may also result in weight loss, a side effect embraced by teenagers struggling with their weight. Check your medicine cabinet for one of the three most commonly abused prescription medications:

• OxyContin
• Xanax
• Adderall

Why do kids abuse prescription drugs?

• Peer pressure
• To feel more relaxed or more energized
• To help them study for an exam or stay up all night to finish a paper
• To lose weight
• To have fun

Over-the-Counter Dangers

Combining prescription medication with cold medicine, antihistamines or alcohol can intensify side effects. Maybe you’ve recently purchased cough syrup at the drug store and been asked for a photo ID before you were allowed to purchase the medicine. That’s because of recent laws cracking down on the abuse of an ingredient found in cold medicine. Dextromethorphan (DXM) is fine in small doses of cough medicine. But it can cause hallucinations and a distorted sense of reality if taken in large doses.

What can be done?

Talk to your kids about the dangers of abusing prescription medication. Prescriptions are only safe for the person whose name is on the label. Using someone else’s prescription can result in seizures or death. It’s also against the law. Your child might assume that he’s not engaging in criminal behavior because the pills came from a doctor. But taking Vicodin that aren’t yours can land you in jail, much the same as buying street drugs. Abusing prescription medication can also lead to a dangerous road of drug or alcohol addiction.

Are prescription medications the new gateway drugs? Photo courtesy of joguldi.

Sources:

NY Daily News

Live Free Pinellas County

WebMD

Teens Health

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Pill mills have been in the news a lot recently. These “legitimate” pharmacies make headlines for being distribution points for prescription drugs. They call themselves pharmacies and pain clinics, but in reality they are little more than ways for drug dealers to register their businesses.

The Tampa Bay Area, which of course includes Pinellas County, is currently considered the prescription drug capital of the U.S. This undesirable label is largely due to the large number of legal, yet realistically illegitimate, pharmacies that have popped up all over the area. These clinics give incredible amounts of prescription drugs to “patients” via a legal prescription. We do not want to get in the way of medical treatment, but take an example into consideration. A single Pinellas County doctor prescribed an estimated 94,000 individual pills to five individual “patients” over a two-year period. Do the math and each one of those “patients” took almost twenty-six pills a day, every day, for two years. Either these are in excruciating pain, or this physician was supplying street-level drug dealers. Which explanation do you think more accurately depicts the truth?

These facilities operate due to lax regulations and loopholes in the regulations that do exist. Well up until recently that is. Senate Bill 2272 is finally in place and being enforced better. The bill is directly aimed at controlling “pain” clinics and other establishments that dispense narcotics to patients. Now every clinic that prescribes narcotics must be owned and operated by a doctor who actually works out of the clinic. Can you believe that this wasn’t on the books before? In an example much like the one provided above, one “business man” owned six pain clinics and had only one doctor on staff–yet somehow all six clinics prescribed drugs on a daily basis. With the new regulations, the problem will be cleaned up a little bit. Unfortunately some doctors will remain willing to bend the law. It’s still possible that individual doctors will open multiple clinics and use their licenses to keep on overprescribing pills.

We do want to applaud the enforcement efforts that are in place. In mid-September a cooperative effort among multiple law enforcement entities in the Tampa Bay Area resulted in the arrest of over 100 people for charges mostly relevant to selling prescription drugs. While the raids did not seem to target clinics specifically, we fully support any and all efforts to stop people who are selling prescription drugs. Let’s face it: many of the people who were arrested likely obtained some of the medications they sold from pill mills. This is not the first time that law enforcement agencies have cracked down on the prescription drug trade, and we’re confident that these efforts will continue—and benefit our community immensely.

As a final note we would like to make sure that we are being clear. Some people experience great pain due to legitimate medical conditions. We are not opposed to doctors prescribing necessary medication to patients with medical cause. We also want to be clear that the vast majority of doctors make decisions based upon their medical knowledge, their patient’s needs and the Hippocratic Oath. The problem rests with the relatively small number of rogue doctors who are willing to prescribe relatively immense amounts of medications for profit. These rogue doctors are the ones who are contributing directly to the drug problem in our community, and we should focus our efforts on removing them from our community.

Sources:

TBO.com

CBS.com

Florida Senate Bill 2272

Live Free!

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The Numbers are in and We Don’t Like Them

Prescription Drug Abuse in Pinellas County

We have been talking for some time about prescription drug misuse and abuse. The reason that we have such a heavy focus on this one particular type of substance abuse is that it is officially the most prevalent form of substance abuse–not only in Pinellas County, but in the entire United States, prescription drugs have taken over as the number one drug of choice.

How big is the problem?

According to the Drug Enforcement Agency, at least 7 million Americans abuse prescription drugs. This is more than the combined number of people who use cocaine, heroin, hallucinogens, inhalants and ecstasy. Statistics in Pinellas County alone show that more people are illegally using prescription drugs and, even more alarming, that children are becoming users. Use among high school students by percentage increased with every grade level as far back as 2008. As you can see, it is a significant problem and we must unite to address it.

How do people get these controlled substances?

Most people know that prescription drugs such as oxycontin and vicodin are illegal to obtain without a prescription and that they are heavily guarded at pharmacies. Due to this some feel people assume that they are hard to obtain on the street. The truth is that they are not. Prescription drug abusers of all ages can obtain these and other drugs by:

• Stealing them from the medicine cabinet of a family member or friend who has a legitimate prescription
• Buying them illegally from drug dealers
• Doctor “shopping”; which means going to multiple doctors and reporting fake symptoms in order to illegitimately obtain a prescription
• Going to illegitimate pharmacies (You may have recently seen in the news how many of these have been shut down.)
• Purchasing them over the internet

As you can see, it is easier for some users to get prescription drugs than many of us previously thought. We need to work together to combat these means of obtaining prescription drugs illegally.

How can we help?

Every citizen can play a role in combating illegal prescription drug use.

• Properly dispose of old prescriptions
  • Do Not flush them down toilets or sink drains; this introduces them to the water supply
  • Turn prescriptions in at community drug collection events
  • Mix old pills in with disposable waste such as food scraps or kitty litter, put the combination in a sealed container and throw away with garbage
• Report drug dealers that you are aware of
• Educate your children on the dangers of prescription drugs, stress that they are just as bad as traditional street drugs
• Vote to increase the constraints on who is able to supply the drugs or reach out to legislators who make these decisions

One of the main purposes of this blog is to educate people about the problems that we face. The more knowledge that we have the better equipped we all are to fight this epidemic and improve our cities, towns and neighborhoods.

SOURCES

LiveFree!
United States Drug Enforcement Agency
Tampa Bay.com
Office of National Drug Control Policy
University of Texas

The misuse and Abuse of Prescription Drugs are on the rise in Pinellas County, the State of Florida and the Nation. According to the Office of National Drug Control Policy, “Prescription drug abuse is the fastest-growing drug problem in the United States. Because prescription drugs are legal, they are easily accessible, often from a home medicine cabinet. Further, some individuals who abuse prescription drugs, particularly teens, believe these substances are safer than illicit drugs because they are prescribed by a healthcare professional and sold behind the counter”.

According to the 2008 Partnership for a Drug Free America’s Annual Tracking Study, 1 in 5 teens have abused a prescription pain medication and 1 in 5 teens report abusing prescription stimulants and tranquilizers. In a report released by SAMHSA in July of 2008, they state that the intentional misuse of prescription drugs is now only second to marijuana as the nation’s most prevalent drug problem.

In 2008, 15.7% of Pinellas County high school students and 3.4% of Pinellas County middle school students reported using Prescription Pain Relievers on at least one occasion in their lifetime, (Florida Youth Substance Abuse Survey). The Pinellas County Substance Use, Health, and Safety Survey reports in 2008 that 1.1% of 6th graders, 4.5% of 8th graders, 5.6% of 10th graders and 5.8% of 12th graders reported non-medical use of prescription drugs in the past 30-days. This is an increase in every grade from 2006.

Prescription Drugs, when not used in proper direction of a doctor, are dangerous and potentially lethal substances. In District 6, which is comprised of Pinellas and Pasco Counties, the Medical Examiner’s Annual Reports document that from 2001 to 2009, the cases of deceased persons with Hydrocodone found in toxicology reports rose from 54 to 115, an overall increase of 113.0%, Oxycodone rose from 61 to 294, an overall increase of 382.0% and Methadone rose from 37 to 143, an overall increase of 286.5%, whereas Heroin decreased from 32 to 9, an overall decrease of 71.9%. From 2003 to 2009, the cases with Alprazolam (Xanax) rose from 82 to 267, an overall increase of 225.6%. District 6 Medical Examiner’s data also shows that we have the highest amounts of six out of the seven prescription drugs tested for in toxicology reports by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, (alprazolam, oxycodone, hydrocodone (tie), propoxyphene (tie), methadone, morphine).

Removing unwanted or unused prescription drugs from the home is an effective strategy to help keep our youth safe. Data from the 2009 Partnership/ METLIFE Foundation Attitude Tracking Study (PATS) reports that 63% of teens believe prescription drugs are easy to get from their parent’s medicine cabinet, up significantly from 56% just last year. LiveFree! in partnership with the Pinellas Juvenile Assessment Center (PJAC) and the Juvenile Addiction Receiving Facility (JARF) have been implementing a survey asking youth about their prescription drug use. 74.1% of youth surveyed at the JARF and 17.7% of youth surveyed at the PJAC report misusing prescription drugs on at least one occasion in their lifetime.

To help combat the misuse and abuse of prescription drugs in our community, you can:

• Carefully monitor prescription drugs in the home;
• If you have unused or expired prescription drugs, properly dispose of them at a law enforcement-sponsored take-back event in your community;
• Support efforts to educate physicians about opiate painkiller prescribing;
• Share information about the dangers of prescription drug abuse with your family, friends, and members of the public.

The next Operation Medicine Cabinet- a prescription drug take back day- will occur on August 21, 2010 with 8 locations throughout Pinellas County