TEEN PILL-POPPERS ON THE RISE: SURVEY

Recreational Use Of Painkiller OxyContin Jumps In Eastern Ontario,
Even As It Levels Off In Rest Of Province

One in five Eastern Ontario high-school students has taken highly
addictive painkillers such as OxyContin, Percocet and Demerol. And
the recreational use of OxyContin among this region's teens is rising
sharply, even as it levels off in other parts of the province.

Only alcohol and marijuana are more popular, according to the Ontario
Student Drug Use and Health Survey, the country's longest ongoing
study of teen habits.

Among Eastern Ontario's 308,000 students between grades 7 and 12,
nearly 65,000, or 21 per cent, admit-ted having taken a prescription
painkiller at least once in 2009, the last time the survey was conducted.

Since 2005, when the survey began tracking OxyContin use in
particular, the rate of Eastern Ontario students who reported taking
the drug has jumped nearly threefold, from 0.6 to 1.6 per cent. That
translates to more than 4,900 young people in a region stretching
from Algonquin Park to the Quebec border.

"It was a big surprise for us to see how common these drugs are,"
said Robert Mann, a senior scientist at Toronto's Centre for
Addiction and Mental Health and one of the survey's authors.

The survey confirms what police and public health officials already
know is an epidemic that has pushed up rates of overdose deaths and
drugstore robberies.

Addiction treatment experts consider the survey results a
conservative estimate since the poll only tracks students who attend
school, not those who have dropped out or been expelled.

"This is just the tip of the iceberg," said Glenn Barnes, chief
executive of the Dave Smith Youth Treatment Centre, Eastern Ontario's
residential drug treatment facility for teens.

"You're missing all of those troubled kids who get kicked out (of
school). My hunch is they're the ones who would be into more drugs
than all of the kids in school combined."

While heavy drug use among teens has generally declined over the past
two decades, Eastern Ontario is the only region to have bucked the
provincial trend, driven by OxyContin's popularity.

The brand-name drug is a potent painkiller containing the opioid
oxycodone, which delivers an initial rush of euphoria, much like
heroin. Doctors prescribe oxycodone to help patients recovering from
surgery, back injury or chronic pain, but the drug can also be highly
addictive.

The growing popularity of Oxy-Contin as a recreational drug,
particularly in rural communities, is an unintended consequence of a
dramatic rise in prescriptions nationwide for oxycodone.

Compared to a decade ago, Canadians now use more prescription opioids
per capita than any country but the United States and Belgium.

Police say the black market demand for OxyContin has taken off in
recent years, as have thefts of prescription painkillers, turning
pharmacies into targets for OxyContin robbers.

Within Eastern Ontario, Cornwall has become an epicentre of
Oxy-Contin abuse, fuelling a sharp rise in petty crime. In the past
18 months, nine adults and teens have died from OxyContin-related
overdoses. The area's public health unit, working with police, has
formed a task force to tackle the problem.

"You can see why we're worried about it because it's something that
people get hooked on very easily," said Dr. Paul Roumeliotis, the
chief of public health for the rural counties surrounding Cornwall.
"And because of the addiction and withdrawal, they'll go to any
lengths -prostitution, crime -to feed their habit."

Unlike other street drugs, Oxy-Contin is relatively easy for teens to
get, particularly if their parents or grandparents have prescriptions
for it, said Roumeliotis.

And when teens become addicted to OxyContin, they are far less likely
than addicts of alcohol or other types of drugs to seek help.

In his previous job as director of the Cornwall area's youth
addictions treatment program, Barnes noticed "a frightening number"
of teens who showed up in hospital emergency rooms after overdosing
on OxyContin.

"Before these kids died, they were not looking for treatment," said Barnes.

Provincewide, more than 180,200 students between grades 7 and 12, or
18 per cent of all teens, have taken an opioid-based painkiller at
least once without a doctor's prescription. Of that group, 16,700, or
two per cent, have taken OxyContin.

More than half of OxyContin users reported having taken the drug once
or twice a year; another 15 per cent admitted using the drug more
than 10 times.

Among Ontario's regions, the highest rate of OxyContin use continues
to be in the north (3.2 per cent), followed by the west (1.7). Since
2005, Toronto's rate has jumped from 0.8 to 1.3 per cent with no
reliable data for 2009.