PROGRAM ADDRESSES DANGER OF PRESCRIPTION DRUG ABUSE

"There is no single profile of someone who abuses prescription drugs.
There is no set stereotype."

And Catherine Zdeblick should know. Her daughter, Julie, was a
17-year-old Middleton High School student when she overdosed on
OxyContin in March 2004. Zdeblick describes her daughter as "a
risk-taker - she was smart, committed to social causes, and well-liked."

Despite all that, she started using drugs.

According to Columbia University's National Center on Addiction and
Substance Abuse, 2.3 million youth ages 12 to 17 took legal
medications illegally in 2003, the latest year with figures
available. That means nearly 1 in 10 teens have used - and abused -
prescription drugs, nearly triple the numbers from a decade ago.

The frightening statistics, widespread availability and treatment
options for prescription drug abuse will be discussed tonight on the
Wisconsin Public Television program "Teen Connection" that airs in
the Madison area on Ch. 21.

"Because these medicines are prescribed a doctor, many teens have a
false sense of security that they are safe. But if you're using it in
any way other than the amount and purpose for which it was
prescribed, you're abusing it," Zdeblick says.

She will be a guest on the live call-in program; others include Don
Boersma, a Green Bay pharmacist, and Dr. Ernie Stremski, director of
the Wisconsin Poison Center at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin, Milwaukee.

Zdeblick says it's crucial for any drug abuse to be recognized - and
addressed - early: "Parents need to know the nature of the
prescription drug problem. Even when you're trying to battle it,
you're not always successful."

Julie's parents had discovered her drug use, one which extended
beyond prescription drugs, before her death. In fact, she'd even
received drug treatment the night she sneaked out of her town of
Westport home to purchase the OxyContin that would kill her.

Mixed substances CASA research shows that about 75 percent of
prescription drug abusers take other drugs or use alcohol, often at
the same time.

"When you mix drugs, it ups the ante," Zdeblick says. "While most
people won't die, there are potentially fatal results from
prescription drug abuse."

Like Julie, Nicholas Burkart, a 15-year-old who attends Preble High
School in Green Bay, mixed drugs with other substances, including
alcohol, on a regular basis.

But unlike Julie, Nicholas is here - and now clean - to warn other
teens of the dangers that prescription drugs pose. He, too, will join
the panel on "Teen Connection."

"When I started high school, I didn't know that many people and I
felt out of place. Two weeks into my freshman year, I started trading
and selling prescription drugs," he recalls.

He had been diagnosed with attention deficit disorder (ADD) and was
prescribed 40 milligrams of Adderall a day. But soon, he was taking
three or four times that amount - and trading what he could to other
teens. In return, he'd get OxyContin, ecstasy, marijuana and alcohol.
When trading wasn't enough, he resorted to selling.

In easy reach Nicholas says he and his friends would get most of
their prescription drugs from unsuspecting parents - some of whom
were doctors and nurses themselves. Zdeblick says this is common.
"Parents need to get rid of unused medication."

Many of the commonly abused prescription medications include
painkillers like OxyContin or Vicodin, anti-anxiety drugs such as
Valium or Xanax, or ADD medications like Ritalin and Adderall. If a
teen is already abusing prescription drugs, they quickly realize that
many of these drugs are within easy reach - if not in their homes,
then in their friends' or their relatives'.

For Nicholas, his alcohol and drug use were constant during his
freshman year of high school.

"I'd skip classes, or show up late and either drunk or high," he
says. "Tests were hard - sometimes (due to the drugs) I could barely see them."

It all came to a head last May. "I didn't want to talk to my parents
at first. I thought they were going to flip out on me," he says.

Once his parents discovered that he was abusing drugs and alcohol, he
ran away and his parents called the police. Soon he was taken to a
crisis center and later to the Brown County Hospital for treatment.

"I missed the last month of school," Nicholas says. "But I was
surprised at how caring and understanding my family was throughout it all."

Now back at Preble High School, he is active in football and
performing well in school.

But it's not always easy. The first month after he was clean, he
experienced grueling headaches and cold sweats. His attitude, he says
ruefully, was pretty awful, too.

Now he attends Narcotics Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous meetings
regularly and proudly says that he has two incredible sponsors.

"It's still tempting - it always will be," he acknowledges. But he
cites the support of his family and friends - and, of course, his NA
and AA sponsors - as helping him stay clean and sober.

"I still get people calling me for drugs. I just tell that that I
don't do that any more," he says. "Sometimes they're OK with it, but
other times they'll get mad or even threaten me."

At first, Nicholas was scared to talk to his football coaches about
his experience; he knew he would have to miss practices to attend NA
and AA meetings.

"But they were so proud of me for owning up to it."