DRUGS MEANT FOR MEDICINAL USE FINDING THEIR WAY INTO SCHOOLS

KINGSPORT - Have you checked your medicine cabinet lately? If not, maybe you
should.

Prescription drugs, meant to help people deal with a medical problem, are
finding their way into schools across the country and landing middle and
high school students in a world of hurt.

And local schools are no exception. In fact, the majority of the 53
zero-tolerance drug cases in Sullivan County schools last year and about
half of those in Kingsport City Schools the past few years have involved
prescription drugs brought from home.

"When we get zero-tolerance problems in multiple numbers, it's usually a
situation where one child brings prescription drugs from home that they've
gotten out of the medicine cabinet and a number of children for whatever
reason - whether it's peer pressure or experimentation - take (or possess)
the drugs," Director of Sullivan County Schools Glenn Arwood said.

It's less than a month into the school year and already two middle schools -
one in the city and one in the county - have dealt with zero-tolerance cases
involving multiple students and prescription drugs.

In the most recent incident at Ross N. Robinson Middle School, six
eighth-grade girls were charged after one brought a prescription medication
and distributed it to the others.

Director of Juvenile Court Services Bobby Larkins said the incident occurred
Aug. 20.

The six girls met in a bathroom that morning and the girl who brought the
Seroquel, which was her own medication, stomped on three pills and passed
them out.

Larkins said only three of the other five girls present ingested the
medication.

The five girls entered guilty pleas in juvenile court this week and were
ordered to serve 48 hours in the Upper East Tennessee Regional Juvenile
Detention Center, complete 24 hours of community service and complete an
alcohol and drug education program.

The girl who distributed the drug is in a juvenile observation and
assessment center, Larkins said, and will be in court at a later date. Her
case is being handled differently because she has a prior juvenile offense,
Larkins said.

The Tri-Cities is not alone in its struggles. While most illicit drug abuse,
particularly for middle and high school teens, began to slow or decline in
2002, abuse of prescription drugs continues to climb in the United States.

- - About 13.7 percent of teens between the ages of 12 and 17 have abused
prescription drugs at least once.

- - A University of Michigan study found abuse by high school seniors of
Vicodin is more than double the use of cocaine, Ecstasy or methamphetamine.

- - About one-third of all U.S. drug abuse is prescription drug abuse.

Often, counselors say, young people don't understand that prescription drugs
used outside a doctor's orders can pack a dangerous, even lethal punch.

"Kids don't realize that when they take those prescription drugs that they
can get side effects they don't want," Arwood said.

To make matters worse, he stressed, they can also be putting a loved one in
peril.

"When they take grandmother's drugs and sell them or give them to their
friends, they forget that she's dependent upon that medication," Arwood
said.

"When she goes to the drug store and says she's out, they're probably not
going to fill it for her. So it can be doubly bad."