NAPERVILLE SEES MORE TEENS ABUSING DRUGSTORE MEDICINES

The staff members at Naperville North High School said their latest clue
that over-the-counter medications were being abused with greater regularity
by city teens came about two weeks ago.

A sophomore boy who became sick at the school was treated at Naperville's
Edward Hospital after he admitted taking more than two dozen tablets of
Coricidin, a popular decongestant.

Though the incident was alarming, police and school workers said, situations
like it are becoming more common. Through conversations with students and
parents, and with more abuse cases surfacing at school nurses' offices, it
is evident that Naperville is seeing an increase in over-the-counter drug
abuse among teens, the officials said.

"We know it's happening," said Lisa Galdikas, student assistance program
coordinator at Naperville North. "I've been having conversations in parent
conferences where I'm told, `I've found all these empty bottles of cough
syrup.' That's a problem."

Galdikas said she has seen an increase in such cases over the past two
months. Fifteen Naperville North students have been treated at Edward
Hospital this semester, she said, many under the suspicion of abusing
antihistamines and cold drugs.

No one has pinpointed the reason for the recent surge, Galdikas said.

"When kids figure something out that works for a while, they use it," she
said. "Last year it was smashing other people's Ritalin (into a powder) and
taking that."

Health teachers at Naperville North have been given new materials in recent
weeks to remind students of the dangers of abusing medication, Galdikas
said. Taking large quantities of such drugs can pose a danger to the heart
and liver, she said.

Treatment usually starts with a stomach-pumping, according to staff at
Edward Hospital.

Robin Amberger, student assistance program coordinator at Naperville Central
High School, said abuse cases recently have surfaced there as well. Calls
also have come in to Amberger's office from junior high schools lately, she
said.

"Everywhere I turn I'm hearing about it," she said. "There are some very
potent chemicals in over-the-counter drugs. Just because they're
over-the-counter doesn't mean they're safe."

Amberger said she has noticed an increase in calls from Naperville Central
parents. One mother who called recently said she was worried about her son,
who had started hanging out at a local convenience store.

"I guess on any given day you can drive up to the front of the store and you
can see them drinking their cough syrup," Amberger said.

Naperville Police Sgt. Lisa Burghardt of the department's juvenile division
said cases where teens down an entire bottle of medication are not unusual.

Amberger said such drug abuse earns the same 10-day suspension in Naperville
School District 203 as the use of marijuana or alcohol.

The new warning about over-the-counter drugs comes after a year of police
sounding the alarm over teens using heroin in Naperville. Edward Hospital
staff said the facility still treats "several teens a month" for medical
problems brought on by snorting and smoking heroin.