EPIDEMIC: PRESCRIPTION DRUG ABUSE

Rod Colvin's brother died from drugs. Randy Colvin was intelligent, with no
history of drug abuse. A 35th birthday dinner was planned for the evening
that ended instead with his family planning a funeral.

What do you think when you read that paragraph? If you're like I am, you
think of a rundown street corner where small plastic bags change hands.

But Randy Colvin died from the effect of drugs prescribed to him by a
physician -- in all likelihood, a responsible doctor. And he did not overdose.

In Randy's early 20s, a doctor had prescribed tranquilizers for a slight
anxiety disorder. That prescription led to a habit that led to an addiction
that led him to "shop" emergency rooms, feigning ailments to obtain
stronger (but still perfectly legal) drugs.

Colvin's family is far from alone in this wicked brew.

In January, after a panic attack, the 24-year-old daughter of Florida Gov.
Jeb Bush, another bright, promising individual, allegedly phoned in a phony
prescription for the drug Xanax. Both of President Bush's daughters have
been charged in connection with underage drinking.

The parents in these situations have been open and sensitive about their
children's problems. Perhaps that openness will not only lead to more
healthy behavior for their daughters, but also allow other families to
understand that, as Rod Colvin asserts in his new book, Prescription Drug
Addiction: The Hidden Epidemic (Addicus Books, 2002), that
prescription-drug abuse is a silent epidemic that respects neither poverty
nor privilege; that may be an even greater public health threat than street
drugs.

Colvin's book points out that, according to the National Health Survey on
Drug Abuse, since 1999, more than 9 million Americans have reported using
prescription drugs for nonmedical purposes. That's a staggering figure, and
women and the elderly are more likely than men to be affected.

An estimated 11 percent of all women over the age of 59, Colvin says, are
addicted to psychoactive drugs, most of the "calming" variety, such as
Valium. An addict, he is quick to point out, is not someone who continues
to use a drug over a period of years, at the same dosage, to help cope with
fears or anxieties. An addict starts out appreciating the effects of the drug.

"They feel wonderful," Colvin says.

But then, emotional or even psychobiological issues underlying the initial
treatment -- anything from sleeplessness to a ski injury -- kick in. More
and more medication is necessary to achieve the "high." And that's when
people may begin "duping" doctors (as the American Medical Association
calls it), faking ills where none exist or visiting emergency rooms with
"toothaches" on weekends.

Problem is, since drugs like Xanax are not crack cocaine, the web is
tangled. The pills are "medicine," which initially may have been
appropriate for an actual medical purpose. It's a ready excuse, and though
family members know or sense that their loved ones are pill-popping, denial
and shame are serious roadblocks to treatment.

As with any addict, families make the same mistakes. When his brother was
so groggy he wrecked his car, Colvin drove him. When he lost jobs, Colvin
helped him pay rent. If he hadn't, there's a chance his brother might have
lived.

"We thought he'd get better," Colvin says, "But now I tell people that all
addiction is progressive. It will not get better; it can only get worse.

"When I ask 100 people if they know someone who has misused a prescription
drug," Colvin says, "about 99 raise their hands."

Mine would be one. Would yours?