STATS: PILL POPPING POPULAR FOR TEENS

Good news, teens are using less drugs. Bad news, there is an
exception.

State and national statistics say that fewer teens are using most
types of drugs. The percentage of Ohio teens who said they have tried
smoking cigarettes plunged from 73.1 percent in 1999 to 51.2 in 2007,
according to a state survey. Illegal drug use is dwindling or not
increasing in most areas.

But, amid the good news is a bit of bad news, to wit, prescription
abuse.

While statistics vary depending on the source, state statistics show
that high school students are abusing more prescription pills than
seven years ago. National statistics show a bump in some age groups,
and local authorities said they are seeing the rise regionally, as
well.

The Numbers

The Ohio Youth Risk Behavior Survey is a biannual survey conducted by
the Ohio departments of Health, Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services,
and Mental Health. About 2,500 students from 101 Ohio schools were
asked questions about drugs and other issues affecting teens. The last
year for which statistics have been compiled is 2007.

In the Ohio Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 26.6 percent of high school
students in Ohio said they have used a prescription drug without a
prescription in 2007. That's not a big leap from 25.2 percent in 2003.
In fact, it's even a slight dip from 2005, when 28.5 percent of polled
students said they had done it.

But the more troubling numbers emerge when one focuses on high school
juniors and seniors. Twenty-six percent of juniors said they had used
a prescription drug in 2003. That number jumped to 30.1 percent in
2007. Seniors went from 26.9 percent to 32.2 percent in the same time
frame. Contrarily, freshmen and sophomores each shaved 1 percent from
their totals.

An overall 1.2 percent increase is not a cataclysmic event, but it
stands in contrast to almost every other drug trend in the OYRBS.
Hallucinogen use fell from 10.3 to 8.2 percent between 2003 and 2007.
Methamphetamine use plummeted from 8 to 5.9 percent. Heroin and
cocaine use showed almost no change.

Heroin barely dipped from 3.8 percent to 3.5 percent. Cocaine slipped
a tenth of a percentage point to 8.3 percent.

Even the number of students who used marijuana once a month fell from
21.4 percent to 17.7 percent.

In fact, the only other non-alcohol drugs to have any increase besides
prescription drugs were crack cocaine (3.4 percent to 3.7 percent) and
inhalants (3.3 percent to 5.7 percent.)

Both drugs seem to be used by a much smaller percentage of high school
students, but is impossible to tell for certain from the OYRBS because
teens were asked if they had used prescription drugs illegally in the
last year.

However, with inhalants and other drugs, they were asked if they had
used it in the last month.

It is impossible to directly compare state and national levels of
prescription abuse.

The national Monitoring the Future survey does not ask teens if they
have abused any prescription drug, just OxyContin and Vicodin - two
opiates used for pain control.

Monitoring the Future annually surveys 46,348 students from eighth,
10th and 12th grades in 386 public and private schools. In 2009 an
increase was reported in OxyContin and Vicodin use during the last
five years for high school sophomores. Conversely, it found
prescription abuse has stayed the same for eighth and 12th grade
students nationally.

Nationally, almost every other drug is down since 2005. According to
the Monitoring the Future survey, cigarette smoking is at an all-time
low for teens. Alcohol and marijuana use, while still popular, has
dipped at every grade level. Inhalants, hallucinogens, cocaine, heroin
and tranquilizers are all down, though some by only a fraction of a
percentage point.

LSD is the only other drug to become more popular in a certain age
group. LSD is one of the least popular drugs, according to the survey;
but 2.7 percent of the seniors admitted to using it in the last year,
up from 1.8 percent in 2005.

The Region

There are no regional statistics about teen drug abuse with which to
compare national and state numbers. Instead, local authorities were
asked if they saw similar spikes locally in prescription drug abuse.

Lake County Narcotics Agency Lt. Jennifer Kemp said prescription abuse
is definitely on the rise among teens.

"They are more available, especially to those who have never used a
street drug," Kemp said.

The lieutenant said while her evidence from teens is anecdotal, she
was under the impression most teens received prescription drugs from
their parents and friends. Kemp's suspicions are reinforced by the
Monitoring the Future survey, which said that 54 percent of teens who
have abused prescription drugs were either given or bought them from a
friend or relative.

By comparison, only 8 percent said they bought them from a dealer or
stranger.

Kemp has two specific concerns regarding prescription drug abuse, and
they do not just pertain to teens. One, 11 of the 12 fatal overdoses
in Lake County last year involved prescription drugs, she said. Two,
the rise in prescription drugs has been mirrored by a regional rise in
heroin use, and authorities think the two are related.

The most commonly abused prescription pills are Percocet, Vicodin and
OxyContin, said Christopher Begley, a pharmaceutical investigator for
LCNA. These are brand names for the drugs oxycodone and hydrocodone,
which are opiates like heroin. Begley said those who use heroin will
substitute prescription pills and vice versa.

"When they can't get heroin, they're just as happy with oxycodone," he
said. "If they're a pillhead, and they can't get the pills, then
they'll use heroin."

Begley primarily investigates people who scam for pills by forging
prescriptions or visiting several doctors. Those people are almost
always adults, and his arrest levels cannot necessarily be applied to
teen drug abuse. Begley had his busiest year in 2009. Before last
year, he said he averaged about 50 arrests per year. In 2009, he
arrested 66.

"Statistically, our arrests have jumped to the highest they've ever
been," he said.

[sidebar]

For more information on the Ohio Youth Risk Behavior Survey, visit
www.odh.ohio.gov/odhPrograms/chss/ad_hlth/YouthRsk/youthrsk1.aspx

For more information on Monitoring the Future, visit
www.drugabuse.gov/infofacts/HSYouthtrends.html