STUDY: TEENS TURN TO PRESCRIPTION DRUGS TO GET HIGH

NEW YORK -- About one in five teenagers has tried prescription painkillers
such as Vicodin and OxyContin to get high, with the pill-popping members of
"Generation Rx" often raiding their parents' medicine cabinets, according
to a study by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America.

The 17th annual study on teen drug abuse, released Thursday, found that
more teens had abused a prescription painkiller in 2004 than Ecstasy,
cocaine, crack or LSD. One in 11 teens had abused over-the-counter products
such as cough medicine, the study reported.

"For the first time, our national study finds that today's teens are more
likely to have abused a prescription painkiller to get high than they are
to have experimented with a variety of illegal drugs," said Partnership
Chairman Roy Bostock.

According to the study, the most popular prescription drug was Vicodin,
with 18 percent -- or about 4.3 million youths -- reporting they had used
it to get high. OxyContin and drugs for attention-deficit disorder such as
Ritalin/Adderall followed, with one in 10 teens reporting they tried them.

Fewer than half of the teens -- 48 percent -- said they saw "great risk" in
experimenting with prescription medicines. "Ease of access" was cited as a
major factor in trying the medications, with medicine cabinets at home or
at friends' homes a likely source, the survey found.

It was only the second year that the survey had studied abuse of legal
drugs. In 2003, the Partnership grouped together three prescription pain
relievers, Vicodin, OxyContin and Tylox, and found that 20 percent of teens
had tried them.