STUDENTS SHARE PRESCRIPTION DRUGS

School Officials See Medicine Kids Steal From Their Homes

CHIPPEWA FALLS - For years Chippewa Falls Police Officer Brian Micolichek
has seen cases of stolen prescription drugs in the city and prescription
drug misuse.

But this year he has seen a new trend evolving: young students sharing
prescribed medication.

Micolichek, the middle school and high school resource officer, said three
middle school students were expelled this month for distributing and using
prescription drugs. And one high school student was expelled in March for
the same reason.

"Kids at that age start experimenting," Micolichek said. "If they can't get
street drugs they just look in their cabinet."

Drugs in the two expulsion cases were either the students' prescribed drugs
or their parents' drugs, said Middle School principal Janet Etmund.

"Sometimes prescriptions are left over (in the cabinet)," she said.
"They're experimenting and sharing it with friends."

Etmund said to the students it might seem harmless, but the health factor
is what worries her.

"They don't know what they're getting into," she said. "You don't know how
someone is going to react."

Psychiatrist Scott Persing of the L.E. Phillips Treatment Center in
Chippewa Falls said the health risks vary as much as the prescriptions.

Effects on the students may range from euphoria to death, depending on the
prescription, he said.

"(Death can occur) certainly depending on the medication," Persing said.
"Narcotic pain killers for headaches are more serious."

Persing said he has had discussions with children who have tried a
combination of two or three prescription medications with over-the-counter
drugs.

"It gives them some sort of euphoria," he said. "It's pleasurable and once
they experiment and figure this out it becomes more of a behavior pattern.

"You start talking addictions when they get to a position where they find
an enforcing effect and develop an ongoing problem."

Persing said it snowballs when the children start telling their friends
about the drugs and the feeling they get from them.

Treatment center director Shawna Kovach said sharing prescribed drugs at
school popped up in Chippewa Falls within the last year.

"You didn't see the medications in the school system 10 or 15 years ago,"
she said. "Now the kids are going to school and saying to their friends,
'Look at what I'm taking.' "

Kovach said the first step is making the parents aware of the problem and
encouraging a dialogue between parents and children.

Micolichek said the students also must be aware of the issues.

"The kids have the misnomer that the doctor prescribed it, the doctor
wouldn 't prescribe it if it was going to hurt someone," Micolichek said.
"They think it's a safe thing to take."

Although, as far as administrators know, none of the students have been
hospitalized for the consumption of prescription drugs, Micolichek said
he's seen kids walking down the hall that just look out of it.

"Prescribed medication is some of the worst drugs out there," he said.
"Some kids are on other medications, even cold medicine, and they could
have an adverse reaction."

In the instance of three eighth-grade girls that were expelled until the
end of the 2004-05 school year, administrators were not privy to the
circumstances until another student came forward.

"Kids saw it going on and said, 'This is wrong and we're going to tell
someone about it,' " Micolichek said.

Assistant Middle School Principal Jeanne Anderson dealt with the girls.

"I won't know (what's going on) unless somebody gets sick and tired of
seeing it amongst their friends," she said. "We've concentrated so much on
illegal drugs and alcohol in school that I don't think we did a very good
job with other drugs."

Anderson said most of the parents said they didn't know drugs in their
bathroom cabinet could be an issue.

"Parents said it never even dawned on them to talk about not taking someone
else's prescription drugs," Anderson said.

Micolichek, who also spoke with parents, said they were stunned by the problem.

"Parents said they never would have thought to throw away (their old
prescriptions)," he said. "People say, 'oh I'll just hang on to this in
case it acts up again."

But Micolichek urged parents to take matters into their own hands.
Micolichek said there are certain rules parents should follow:

- - Don't keep expired medication around the house.

- - Know what's in your medicine cabinet.

- - Literally keep it out of the reach of children.

"These are kids that were never in trouble before and they just decided to
do something that week," Micolichek said. "Why buy marijuana if mom and dad
have painkillers up in the cupboard?"