STUDY IGNORES PRESCRIPTION ABUSE

Students Questioned About Use Of Drugs, Prevalence Of Violence,
Sexual Activity.

Despite national studies showing the abuse of prescription drugs and
over-the-counter medicines is rampant among teens, the issue was
largely ignored in a survey of dangerous behavior among the state's
youth.

On Friday, the state Department of Education released the results of
the 2007 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, a national survey of high school
students sponsored by the Center for Disease Control that is conducted
every two years.

High school students are asked about the prevalence of violence in
their schools, as well as their own drug use, sexual and physical
activity and nutrition habits.

In the drug section of the survey, teens were asked about their use of
alcohol, cigarettes, marijuana and other drugs like heroin, cocaine
and ecstasy. But the survey does not touch on the abuse of
prescription drugs or over-the-counter medications to get high.

According a 2005 national study released by the Partnership for a Drug
Free America, one in five teens reported abusing prescription drugs to
get high. The study also found that one in 10 of teens reported
abusing cough medicine.

The study, which dubbed today's teens as "Generation Rx," found the
most popular drugs were painkillers like Vicodin and OxyContin.

Rick Walker, head of guidance at Merrimack High School, said it's a
problem that continues to get worse. Just recently he said he had a
situation where a student was stealing a prescription antidepressant
from a parent.

"I would say that it's more prevalent than it ever was before," Walker
said.

The state's Youth Risk Behavior Survey was administered to 1,638
students in 61 of 69 randomly selected public high schools during the
spring of 2007. Randomly selected classes completed an anonymous
survey consisting of 99 questions.

Thirty-nine high schools in the state also opted to conduct a
school-wide survey, in addition to the random survey. The Department
of Health and Human Services will produce individual school reports.

Jeffrey Metzger, senior management analyst at the Department of Health
and Human Services, is responsible for collecting the data. He also
works in drug and alcohol prevention.

He said knowing whether students in the state are abusing prescription
drugs would be good information to have in the next survey.

"I would think it's going to be added in the next one. You could
pretty much bet on it," he said. The next survey will be conducted in
2009.

Metzger said there is competition among state departments when
deciding which questions to include. The data produced by the surveys
are used when writing grants and allocating state funds for prevention
programs, he said.

He added that alcohol remains the most widely used drug among the
state's teens.

"The data has really shown that alcohol is the number one thing that
we need to address," he said.

In the Youth Risk survey, the numbers on cigarette and alcohol use
stayed pretty much the same over the past two years. In 2005, 20.5
percent of students reported smoking a cigarette in the past month. In
2007, that number dipped to 19 percent.

In 2005, 44 percent reported having an alcoholic drink in the past
month. In 2007, the response was 44.8 percent.

However, the use of marijuana appears to be on the decline. In 2005,
25.9 percent of students reported using marijuana over the past month.
That dropped to 22.9 percent in 2007.

Students also reported fewer drugs being offered or sold at school. In
2005, 26.9 percent of students said they were offered, sold or given
an illegal drug at school over the past year. That dropped to 22.5
percent in 2007.

Metzger said he took notice of spikes in some areas of the survey. He
pointed out there was a 2 percent increase among students who said
they were forced to have sex, up from 5.2 percent in 2005 to 7.2
percent in 2007.

Metzger said he would like to see more schools take part in the
school-wide survey. For example, Nashua schools do not take part, but
Manchester schools do, he said.

"The more local data we have, the more we'll know about New Hampshire
youth," he said.

Ray Peterson, vice president of the United Way of Greater Nashua, said
because of the perceived problem of prescription drug abuse among
young people, his organization recently added questions about the
issue on its own community assessment survey.

"We felt that may be an issue," he said. "We try to be ahead of the
game."

The results of the United Way survey, which includes parents and teens
in the Nashua area, are used as part of the organization's study on
issues facing the community.

"We may or may not get a response on that," Peterson said, about the
prescription drug issue. "We won't know until we get the data back."

Some other notable results of the Youth Risk Behavior Survey
were:

One-quarter said in the past month, they had rode, at least once, in
a car with someone who had been drinking alcohol.

Fourteen percent said they seriously considered attempting suicide
in the past year.

Forty-five percent said they have had sex at least once. Four
percent said they had sex before they were 13 years old. Twelve
percent said they have had sex with four or more people.

Eighty-nine percent said they have been taught in school about AIDS
and HIV infection.