Audio clip
Phil Summers
RINGGOLD, Ga. — A teenager who died after overdosing on potent prescription painkillers was part of a group of area students that uses Internet forums to boast about abusing drugs, and police are taking notice.
“We call that drug intelligence,” Catoosa County Sheriff Phil Summers said of the postings on MySpace, which include photos of the teens smoking from marijuana pipes and written accounts about taking LSD.
The sheriff said more evidence is needed beyond the online postings to make arrests.
The Catoosa County Sheriff’s Department on Tuesday charged a 15-year-old Ringgold High School student with involuntary manslaughter in connection with the death of Timothy Lebron Smith, 16, who died after taking four oxycodone pills Friday.
The boy also is charged with giving pills to two other teens and with taking them himself. All the students became sick after taking the drugs, and one other nearly died, Sheriff Summers said.
The suspect is being charged as a juvenile, and his name is not public record.
“We know there is a drug problem nationwide. We know we have challenges in all of our high schools across the nation with drug transactions and drug actions in school,” Sheriff Summers said at a Tuesday news conference. “Catoosa County is not unique to this, and we are aware of this.”
On Tuesday, MySpace pages of Catoosa County teens referred to taking Xanax pills and Ecstasy.
Pictures of green, leafy plants, and the students smoking, were publicly posted Tuesday on the MySpace page of the boy the teen stayed with Saturday when he died.
They were made private after the Times Free Press contacted the boy’s mother, who said she was unaware of the material. Mr. Smith’s friend is a 17-year-old Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe student who was not involved in the overdose, officials said.
Mr. Smith’s family could not be reached for comment Monday or Tuesday.
Sheriff Summers said he is unsure if the MySpace material will lead to more arrests.
“We’ll go where the investigation takes us,” he said.
The sheriff said the 15-year-old was arrested after his parents told police that prescription drugs were missing from their home. He said the boy’s grandfather is a cancer patient with a legal prescription for the pills.
Mr. Smith apparently took four 80-milligram pills, he said, and another teen took three of the time-release capsules. He said that youth had to be revived by paramedics.
The two other students, including the boy who was arrested, each took two pills but were not taken to a hospital, Sheriff Summers said.
Another Ringgold High School student died Feb. 13 under “similar circumstances,” the sheriff said, but he said he can’t confirm it was an overdose until a toxicology report is complete. He said he doesn’t expect arrests in that case.
Pharmacist Chuck Gass said the oxycodone pills the teens took are the strongest dose available. He said patients given the drug typically have been through a litany of medical procedures and have developed a tolerance to medication.
“This is not something you start with,” said Mr. Gass, owner of Ringgold Pharmacy Shop and the town’s fire chief. “It’s on the end of the painkiller spectrum.”
Teen abuse of prescription medicines remains “unacceptably high with virtually no drop in nonmedical use,” according to a National Institute on Drug Abuse report.
The organization’s annual survey of high school students found that 15.4 percent of high school seniors reported taking prescription pills for nonmedical use at least once in the past year.
Sheriff Summers said an educational outreach will be launched in Catoosa County that will include broadcasting information over the schools’ television network and distributing literature to parents.
“The No. 1 problem with our young people with drug activity in Catoosa County is prescription drugs. It’s readily available on the streets wherever you go and, once again, it’s available in nearly every household,” the sheriff said.
“We are going to try to help educate them and help them understand about what they are dealing with when they take these medicines.”
