TEEN PRESCRIPTION DRUG ABUSE PERSISTS

A survey released Tuesday shows that teen smoking and drinking
continued to drop but teenage abuse of prescription drugs has become
"an entrenched behavior" that many parents fail to recognize.

20% of teens have tried prescription drug painkillers such as Vicodin
or OxyContin to get high - about 4.5 million teens. The number has
remained fairly constant since 2003. It also indicated that many
teens feel experimenting with prescription drugs is safer than illegal highs.

62% of teens said prescription pain relievers are easy to find at
home. And 52 percent say prescription pain relievers are "available
everywhere."

22% of teens say they smoke, down from 23 percent last year and 42
percent in 1998. A total of 31 percent of teens said they drank in
the past 30 days, down from 42 percent in 1998.

The 2005 Partnership Attitude Tracking Study surveyed more than 7,300
teens in grades seven through 12, the largest continuing analysis of
teen drug-related attitudes toward drugs in the country. The margin
of error was plus or minus 1.5 percentage points.

SOURCE: Associated Press