EXPERT: TEEN PHARM PARTIES ON RISE

When psychologist David Brown talks about "teenage pharming," he
makes it clear to his audience he's not talking about kids going to
4-H or FFA meetings.

Brown, who is on the staff at Parkview Medical Center, brings his
message to two or three groups a month and on Wednesday spoke to
members of the Pueblo chapter of Mental Health America about
organized abuse of over-the-counter and prescription drugs by young people.

The message was timely following the death in October of 17-year-old
South High School student Corey Suazo from a drug overdose linked to
a pharmaceutical party. According to sources, the arrest warrants
were issued recently for 19 adults and juveniles on drug-related
charges with one arrest yet to be made.

The problem of teenagers getting into their parents' pills or
guzzling cough medicine is nothing new but Brown told the group that
the situation is getting a lot worse. While marijuana is still the
most-used illegal drug - Colorado leading the nation in its use, he
added - the growth of new users of prescription drugs is greater than
those beginning to use marijuana.

And they aren't just sneaking a pill or two from the medicine
cabinet, he said. Teens regularly attend parties where the admission
is a bag of pills or other medications that include over-the-counter
cough medicines. The drugs are dumped into a bowl and taken randomly
by the handful, washed down with alcohol or high-caffeine drinks.

He said that 48 percent of the teens that come into Parkview's
emergency room are victims of over-the-counter or prescription drugs.

Parents have been on the lookout for signs their kids are using
marijuana, LSD or other street drugs "but what's not on the radar for
parents is pills," he said. Often, those pills come from the parents'
own medicine cabinet, unused prescriptions for Vicodin, codeine and
other painkillers, sedatives and stimulants.

Bags have even been found with birth control pills and blood pressure
and diabetes medications, Brown said, along with some aspirins kids
had tried to use to gain access to a party. While it's bad enough
that kids with a credit card can order any prescription drug from
shady doctors with Web sites, they can walk into any store and buy
cough medicine that can produce the same effects as LSD in large
enough quantities. There even are Web sites that describe the various
levels of "Robotripping," named for Robitussin, capped with the
highest level that's potentially fatal.

Cough medicines have long been popular as a legal way to get alcohol
but the stronger over-the-counter ones that contain dextromethorphan,
or DXM "are the killers," he said.

Young people can hear all they want about side effects and dangers
but most ignore that, he said, because of a belief that anything
that's prescribed by doctors is safe to use.

Ease of access to pills is another factor and, of course, the desire
for an altered state of consciousness. Or, many teens use drugs as a
way to cope with the pressures of school and adolescence in general.

As many as 35 percent of teens start getting pills from their
parents' supply and less than 8 percent have to buy them, he said,
based on his own surveys. About 9 percent just steal them from
friends and relatives.

Vicodin is seen most frequently, followed by OxyContin, Percodan and
codeine. It's not unusual to find other drugs like Ritalin, used for
hyperactivity and traditional tranquilizers such as Valium and the
most abused prescription drug in the country, Xanax.

Prescription drug use was more prevalent among females, he added,
with some going to the extreme of "leeching," going off in small
groups to cut themselves and put leeches on the wounds.

Brown said that parents need to watch for signs similar to mental
health problems like tardiness at school, falling grades and truancy.
Empty pill or cough medicine bottles are another sign, along with
large numbers of highlighting pens whose fumes can be sniffed like solvents.

Parents also should take a look at their own lives. "Do you take a
pill for every ill?" he asked. Throw out old medicines, he urged, so
they don't become a temptation.