WESTCHESTER: TEENAGE DRUG ABUSE ON RISE

In Westchester County, the percentage of teenagers entering
state-licensed treatment programs for abuse of heroin and
pharmaceutical narcotics has stayed relatively low in recent years,
according to Dahlia Austin, the county's director of drug and alcohol
abuse services in the Department of Community Mental Health. But the
number of teenagers reporting prescription and over-the-counter drug
abuse is on the rise, which, based on anecdotal evidence in other
areas, could forecast future heroin abuse.

Ellen Morehouse, executive director of Student Assistance Services, a
nonprofit substance abuse prevention agency based in Tarrytown, began
offering school nurses in Westchester and nearby counties training in
the signs and symptoms of pharmaceutical drug abuse about five years
ago.

Increasing numbers of high school students have been suffering from
prescription drug episodes at school, Ms. Morehouse said, rapid
hearbeat and passing out in the cafeteria. In the 2006-7 school year,
188 teenagers in the approximately 30 Westchester high schools that
her agency serves reported abusing prescription or over-the-counter
drugs at least once. The following year, the figure nearly quadrupled,
to 720.

Ms. Morehouse said that some youths wanted to get high without
smelling of alcohol or marijuana, making prescription and
over-the-counter drugs and pharmaceutical narcotics an obvious choice.

"They also perceived some of these pills as being safer because
they're prescribed or sold in drug stores," Ms. Morehouse said.