The purpose of this blog has always been to communicate in longer form about issues related to preteens and family life. So is prescription drug abuse really one of those issues?
Yes. Sort of.
While I don't expect that any fourth, fifth, or sixth graders are currently using or being offered someone else's prescription drugs, if current trends hold, one in six will sometime during high school.
We think differently about prescription drugs - kids and adults do - because if they're legally prescribed they must be safer, right? Many of these substances are no less dangerous just because they're
"legal", and it is in fact their legality that causes people to ingest
them in lethal amounts (because, again, if it's a legal substance it
must be safe). More Americans now die each year from drug overdoses than in car crashes; experts say prescription abuse accounts for the surge. Also, there's less of a stigma attached to taking someone else's prescription pills than using illegal drugs - even though using any pill prescribed to someone else is itself against the law.
But our biggest misconception is probably the profile of the average prescription drug abuser. A generation ago, there was a certain stereotype that attached to being a "druggie" - troubled, rebellious, a slacker (think Jeff Spicoli from Fast Times at Ridgemont High or John Bender from The Breakfast Club) - that more or less held true. It may have been movies and our own naivete that reinforced that stereotype. Now the world has become wiser - at least when it comes to illicit drugs - because we know that all types of kids, unfortunately, abuse drugs. But we have yet to come to that realization when it comes to the abuse of prescription drugs. The problem is too new; memorable taglines from the 1980s like "This is your brain on drugs" haven't yet taken hold.
Some of these are kids you really wouldn't expect. Straight-A and Advanced Placement course students will buy, crush and snort the ADD medication Adderall in order to stay alert during tests following all-night study sessions. Why would some of these "good kids" do that? Because they are desperate to do well on the high-stakes tests that determine their college futures.
Here's a sign that we don't yet "get it" when it comes to the scope of the problem: 6% of parents surveyed said they had a teenager who had abused prescription drugs, while 10% of teens say they have. The awareness will come - but in the meantime, what needs to be done is to make prescription drugs very, very difficult for kids to access. Namely, the prescription drugs in your own home. Locked cabinets are the ticket for the medicine you currently take. But disposal is the Rx for drugs you no longer take. Who among us doesn't have leftover prescription medication just sitting in the medicine cabinet, waiting for...what, exactly? And those are the pills we're least likely to notice if they go missing.
This Saturday, the DEA is holding nationwide "Take-Back" events where you can drop off leftover prescription drugs. (And no, you should not necessarily just flush them down the toilet.) Let me urge you to get in the habit of getting rid of prescription medicine in this way. The most commonly abused are painkillers, sedatives like Xanax, and stimulants like Ritalin, Adderall, and other ADD medications (because they're so plentiful). And, most importantly, think twice about the message you send if you give your kid prescription drugs that were meant for someone else (like another member of the family) - 22% of teens said their parents have done that.
In Carlsbad, the drop-off site is Scripps Coastal Medical Center at 2176 Salk Avenue; in Oceanside, at Tri-City Medical Center, 4002 Vista Way; and in Encinitas, at Scripps Hospital, 354 Santa Fe Drive. For other locations, click here.
Info, articles, and thoughts for parents of kids at North Coast Calvary Chapel.
