TEENS + PRESCRIPTIONS = ABUSE

Medicines Are Abusers' Top Choice, Study Finds; Teen Use Grows Rapidly

Abuse of prescription drugs is "epidemic" and teenagers are the
fastest-growing group of new abusers, according to a study released Thursday.

But the problem hasn't drawn enough attention from health and law
enforcement agencies, physicians, pharmacists and parents, said the
report by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at
Columbia University in New York.

Abusers of prescription drugs -- 15.1 million people -- exceed the
combined number abusing cocaine, hallucinogens, inhalants and heroin,
the report said. Of those, 2.3 million are teenagers, but youngsters
turn to prescription drugs at much higher rates than adults do.

Teens arrange "pharming parties" where they swap drugs they have
spirited from home or purchased off the streets or on the Internet,
the report said.

"Availability is the mother of abuse," said Joseph Califano, the
center's chairman and former U.S. secretary of Health, Education and
Welfare. "When I was young, my parents would lock their liquor
cabinet. It may be parents should be thinking of locking their
medicine cabinets."

The center's three-year study analyzed 15 national data sets,
collected information on Internet pharmacies and conducted interviews
and surveys among doctors and pharmacists.

The tally of abusers of medications derives from the 2003 National
Survey on Drug Use and Health, the most recent in which participants
report their own use. An abuser is anyone who reported using an
unprescribed drug or one taken only for the feeling it caused.

The number of prescriptions for controlled drugs and the number of
abusers far outstripped U.S. population growth between 1992 and 2002,
the study reports.

The Washington-based Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of
America, whose members include major drug firms, "strongly supports
efforts that help prevent the dangerous and illegal practice of
diverting prescription drugs from their intended use," PhRMA Senior
Vice President Ken Johnson said in a written statement.

Some drugstore chains have tightened controls over cold and cough
remedies abused by teen-agers, putting them behind counters or
selling only to adults. The study suggests broader remedies, too:
better monitoring by enforcement agents of sales and distribution,
having doctors routinely ask patients about prescription drug use and
improving training to detect abuse.

Pharmacists should ask about all controlled drugs a patient may be
taking and become more aggressive about validating prescriptions, the
study said.

The center's study was funded by a $1 million unrestricted grant from
Purdue Pharma, manufacturer of OxyContin, a painkiller originally
intended for end-stage cancer patients. It is now widely diverted and abused.

The study notes that Purdue "aggressively marketed" the drug for
lesser pain, leading to more prescriptions. It also formulated
OxyContin in a way that easily allowed abusers to crush and snort the
pills, overcoming its time-release formula and allowing a narcotic rush.

Califano said the center and Purdue had a signed agreement that the
company would not have input into the report.