Experts see prescription drug abuse growing in area

Friday, March 6, 2009 12:09 AM EST

By LYNN COLLIER
Dispatch Staff Writer

CHITTENANGO — Prescription drug abuse is a growing problem locally, panelists at a town hall meeting on the subject said.

The event, sponsored by Madison County’s Promise and held at Chittenango High School Thursday night, highlighted a problem that is more evident than it appears to be on the surface and the ramifications young prescription drug abusers can face.

Panelists also spoke about solutions that can aid in keeping such substances out of the wrong hands.

The panel was made up of Madison County District Attorney Bill Gabor, New York State Trooper Jack Keller, Peter Lesko from Madison County Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention and Treatment (ADAPT), Cazenovia Pharmacist Billie Trapani, Chittenango High School Assistant Principal Dee Dee Hagemann, Chittenango Middle School Nurse Debra Gronau and Lisa Murray from Alcohol-Drug Abuse Prevention Education Program (ADA-PEP). Kathy Miller, also from ADA-PEP, moderated the event.

Keller spoke on youth drug use, presenting national statistics that showed that while the use of street drugs, like marijuana, is going down among teens, prescription drug abuse is up 13 percent between 2004 and 2007.

He said, and many repeated throughout the event, that accessibility is a big issue when it comes to why so many young people are abusing prescription drugs.

“The fact is it’s in your medicine cabinet,” Keller said. “It’s not going to cost anything.”

And if a young person is not able to get a drug at his or her own house, looking in a relative’s or friend’s home is an often sought-out way to find these drugs easily.

Though national statistics still show that young people abuse alcohol the most when it comes to drug use, Keller said that prescription drug abuse is catching up.

Opioids and stimulant drugs are among the most popular when it comes to abuse. Opioids are often prescribed to treat pain and include codeine and morphine, while stimulants may be used to treat ADHD and narcolepsy, Keller said.

Specific pain killers that are often abused including Oxycontin and Vicodin. In pill form, Keller said that those kinds of drugs can be easily concealed in something as innocent looking as a mint box, a place where parents wouldn’t normally think to look for drugs.

It’s when students become drowsy, confused or develop other physical symptoms in school or other places that the drug abuse is most likely to be discovered.

Keller said kids as young as 12 years old are dabbling and though they’re not going out looking for cocaine or heroin, they are looking for that kind of high.

“There is an opportunity to get a similar effect to that just by going to the medicine cabinet,” he said.

Over-the-counter drugs are also being abused, he said, including drugs found in some cough and cold syrups.

Keller said another trend emerging is that girls, including high achievers, seem to be abusing prescription drugs more than boys. He said young females are also abusing OTC drugs like diuretics and laxatives.

“For the longest time, the thing we see with girls is them going to stores and shoplifting diet pills,” he said, adding that sometimes it is in large quantities. “It’s a whole thing about trying to stay skinny. It’s their version of trying to be healthy.”

Trapani said that she has seen girls buying large quantities of both in her pharmacy and said she’s put limits on the amount of laxatives they can buy.

But in addition to body image issues, Keller said that stress appears to be a reason why youths get into abusing prescription drugs.

Lesko, who estimated he deals with between five and ten kids at a time dealing with prescription drug abuse problems in this area through the ADAPT program, said that young people have a variety reasons for beginning, whether it’s dealing with grief or loss or just being bored during a Central New York winter weekend. Lesko that peer pressure plays into this sort of drug use as well.

Though some people may not believe that this sort of drug use is local, Lesko said that there are cases in the Oneida and Chittenango areas. Hagemann said that she has also encountered problems as assistant principal of Chittenango High School.

“Over the last three or four years, I have noticed a significant increase in kids abusing prescription drugs,” she said.

As the middle school nurse, Gronau said she has seen the same. Both agree it is difficult to control within the school environment. “It’s almost impossible for us to manage at a level in the school and we need all the help we can get,” Hagemann said.

Chittenango High School has an ADA-PEP counselor in the form of Murray, though, who brought the idea of the panel to school.

“People think this is a really new trend, but I saw this 10 years ago,” she said.

Though there are things like awareness week in school, where drug abuse is discussed and discouraged, as well as programs like DARE and the yearly local Rite Aid Drug Quiz competition, the problem is getting larger.

“I really see this as a public health crisis,” Murray said.

It can get even harder when parents refuse to get involved in a meaningful way, she said, as once it is discovered that their child has a problem, some are in a state of denial. Lesko agreed.

“Parents turn a blind eye to it,” he said. “They have a very hard time.”

Both said that there are other times, when parents are facing substance abuse problems themselves and can’t be there for their child because of it.

Either scenario can be difficult when a parent’s investment in a child’s treatment can make or break whether or not the attempt to get a kid back on the right track is successful or not, Lesko said.

Either way, Lesko said there is a definite problem when it comes to young people abusing prescription drugs.

“We do see it as a problem. It does exist,” he said. “Hopefully people will pay attention to it more.”

Gabor spoke on the legal problems possessing or selling prescription drugs can mean for a youth. As an offender under 15, a youth may be tried in family court, not face as stiff a penalty and see his or her record sealed, but by the time the youth reaches 16, the hammer could come down harder, leaving a permanent stain on his or her record and bringing a tougher sentence.

He also addressed questions regarding the matter of school officials dealing with problems in school involving the possession or selling of prescription drugs before law enforcement is called in, remarking that he didn’t agree with that method of handling such a problem and would be looking into it further.

Mentioned at the end of the program was the upcoming creation of a safe pill drop-off location, for no-longer-needed pills that will be established in June and sponsored by several local agencies. Trapani said that one thing that people can do already to make sure that prescription drugs aren’t abused is turn pills that they won’t be using back into their pharmacy, or grind them up, mix them with coffee grinds and throw them away. To secure prescriptions they are using, she suggested that one can keep them in a locked tackle box.

“You have to be responsible,” she said. “We all have kids. We all believe that we can trust them, but it’s your responsibility, in the end, to secure your prescriptions.”

Linda Kendall, who attended the meeting with her granddaughter, Mary, a seventh grader at Chittenango Middle School, said that the event was eye-opening.

“I found it very informative. I realized that there’s an awful lot I didn’t know,” she said. “I knew we had a problem, but I didn’t know girls were more at risk.”

Mary, who participated and scored well in the 2008 drug quiz competition, was also surprised by that and other numbers shown during the presentation.

“I didn’t know how much these things were abused,” she said. “I didn’t realize what the statistics were.”

Linda said that education about the harms of prescription drug abuse should probably start earlier for kids. She also said perhaps society could go a little easier on prescribing drugs, relying on them less as a solution for every problem, therefore decreasing their everyday presence.

For more information on Madison County’s Promise, visit:

www.madisoncountyspromise.com
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