PRESCRIPTION DRUGS HELPING DRIVE SUBSTANCE ABUSE

LOU DOBBS, HOST: Tonight, scathing criticism of bureaucratic blunders
by the FBI and the Department of Justice in the war against radical
Islamist terrorists. We'll have that special report.

Also tonight, prescription drugs helping drive the fastest growing
type of substance abuse in this country.

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DOBBS: In the war within tonight, the prescription medicines in your
own home are a source of the fastest-growing substance abuse in this
nation. The government's set a goal to cut prescription drug abuse by
15 percent over the next three years. Today issuing new guidelines on
how to prevent those drugs from reaching your children and abusers.

Christine Romans has the story.

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CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The medicines in
your home, when abused, are as addictive and dangerous as illegal
street drugs. Dr. David Murray is the chief scientist of the White
House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

DAVID MURRAY, WHITE HOUSE OFFICE OF NATIONAL DRUG CONTROL POLICY:
They got from family and friends. They got it the from someone's
medicine chest. They got it from trading in front the locker at the
high school. Thinking hey, this will be fun and every bit is
dangerous and is dirty for them as a street drug.

ROMANS: New guidelines tonight to keep unwanted, unused and
unnecessary drugs out of the hands of the estimated 850,000 children
and teens this year who will try them to get high.

First, get them out of the medicine cabinet. Because abusers and
dealers scavenge garbage, take them out of the container, mix them
with used coffee grounds or kitty litter and put them in the trash.

Flush drugs down the toilet only if the label says it is safe. The
EPA is still studying the toxicity of these drugs in our waterways.
With some 6.4 million Americans using medicines to get high, it
raises the question, why as a society are we taking so many drugs in
the first place?

DR. JERRY AVORN, AUTHOR, "POWERFUL MEDICINES": There's probably an
excessive looseness on the part of both doctors in writing these
prescriptions and also in patients in demanding them. And then once
they've got them, there is probably a lack of care in making sure
they're kept where somebody's nephew or grandson isn't -- or
granddaughter isn't going to come upon it and see if they can get high of it.

ROMANS: There is no doubt the dealer is at home. The government says
60 percent of pain pill abusers got their supply for free, from
friends or relatives.

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ROMANS (on camera): The government's David Murray had a stern warning
for Americans. If you have a two-year-old you don't keep bleach under
the counter. Parents and grandparents of teenagers should not have
addictive medicines in their medicine cabinets, Lou.

DOBBS: And they don't want you to flush this stuff down the toilet or
the drain?

ROMANS: The EPA still deciding whether this is something that is
going to be harmful to our waterway. These are things that are not
biodegradable. We're putting them on our bodies. In many cases
they're life-saving medicines, in many cases kids are using to get high.

But unless the label says, don't flush it down the toilet. And don't
just throw it away ...

DOBBS: That really raises a lot of other questions as well.

ROMANS: Sure does. Sure does.

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DOBBS: We thank you for your thoughts. Send them to us here at
loudobbs.com. Join us here tomorrow night for our special report,
"The War Within." We look at marijuana, it's addictive properties,
its impact on our society. We thank you for watching tonight. Good
night from New York.