TALK TO FOCUS ON TEENS' ABUSE OF PRESCRIBED DRUGS

She used them to stay awake longer, to study harder, to lose weight,
to lose herself. The pills were too easy to get.

"I didn't have to call a dealer. All of my friends were using," said
Sara Johnson, 17, a Michigan student who will speak to pharmacists
and parents today about prescription drug abuse by teens. "We would
raid our medicine cabinets. We would steal them from the pharmacy.
They were right in my classroom everyday."

Johnson and a metro Atlanta teen recovering from prescription drug
abuse will lend their voices of experience to a discussion at the
American Pharmacists Association conference about how to keep the
drugs out of the hands of kids looking for an easy high.

The pharmacists are meeting at the Georgia World Congress Center in
Atlanta for a national convention.

According to a recent study by the White House Office of National
Drug Control Policy, more teens are abusing drugs found in their own
medicine cabinets than those on the streets.

"Marijuana use is down, methamphetamine use is down, steroid use is
down," said Scott Burns, deputy director for state, local, and
tribal affairs for the federal drug control office. "Just about
every category of substance abuse is down, except prescription
drug abuse, which has alarmingly increased ... about 150 percent
over the last five years."

To help stop the abuse, the Office of National Drug Control Policy
will announce a partnership with the American Pharmacy Association.

Together, they hope to educate parents about what they see as a
silent epidemic. They will even go as far as asking parents to
"childproof" their homes to keep over-the-counter drugs away from their teens.

Teens and their visiting friends could easily go the bathroom and
"help themselves ... without you even knowing it," said Winnie
Landis, incoming president of the pharmacists group.

Landis said pharmacists should be telling patients and parents to
hide their current medications and throw away their old pills in
containers partially filled with water so the pills can no longer be used.

"A lot of the responsibility falls on the parent to understand that
this is a problem," she said.

Teens use prescription drugs like Adderrall and Oxycontin because
they think it is a safe high. Mixing several drugs could cause
seizures, coma and even death, pharmacy officials said.

Johnson said she was able to hide her addiction from her parents by
avoiding them. She would pop pills by the handful that were set out
in a bowl like mixed nuts at "pharming" parties without knowing what
they were. She went days without eating or sleeping.

"I didn't think I had a problem," she said. "I'm from the suburbs.
I'm a little Catholic school girl. I don't do that kind of stuff."

States also are stepping up to take some responsibility to stop drug
abuse, too. Burns said 33 states have initiated prescription drug
monitoring programs so doctors and pharmacists can track
prescriptions on the day they are written. That way, a teen can't go
to more than one doctor complaining of an ailment and get a
prescription written by each one.

"Georgia is not one of [the states that track]," Burns said said.
"We hope they will be soon."

Stiffer controls may have helped Chase Sewell, 19, of Marietta stay
on track. He started using prescription drugs at Wheeler High School
"to feel comfortable in his skin," he said.

That led to drinking and stronger drugs. Now he is sober and working
to keep other kids from abusing prescription drugs.

"It's a growing epidemic," Sewell said. And for those who are using,
there is light at the end of the road. "They can get better. I am
proof of that. I'm back in school. I'm working toward a career. I'm happy."

LEARN MORE

Pharmacists have databases that can help parents identify pills
found in their children's rooms. For more information on
prescription drug abuse, visit www.theantidrug.com.