For many teens, the easiest route to an illegal high is not through seedy friends or some shady character on a street corner.
The most readily available buzz, and one of the most dangerous, can be had right from their parents' medicine cabinet, said Larry Black, commander of the Lookout Mountain Judicial District Drug Task Force.
Black said prescription drugs played a role in the accidental deaths of more than two dozen teens and young adults in Catoosa, Dade and Walker counties over the last couple of years because people don't understand the dangers.
IF YOU GO
The first session of the Rambler Pride Parent Series, "Pill Poison," will be at the LaFayette High Family Involvement Center from 6 to 7 p.m. Monday at LaFayette High School. The school is at 5178 Round Pond Road, LaFayette, Ga.
BY THE NUMBERS
A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2009 National Youth Risk Behavior Survey released in June that surveyed more than 16,000 students about Illegal prescription drug use showed that the rate of use is:
23 percent among white students
17.2 percent among Hispanic students
11.8 percent among black students
15.1 percent among ninth-graders
18.2 percent among 10th-graders
22.7 percent among 11th-graders
25.8 percent among 12th-graders
Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
PREVENTION MEASURES
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign website "Parents: The Anti-Drug," suggest the following steps to prevent prescription drug abuse at home.
* Safeguard all drugs. Monitor quantities and control access by locking medicine cabinets and keeping track of bottles, pill packets and refills.
* Set clear rules for teens about all drug use. Do not share medicine and always follow dosing directions of medicines prescribed for you.
* Adults should be good role models by following these same rules.
* Properly conceal and dispose of old or unneeded medicines in the trash so they can not be easily recovered once thrown away. Don't flush medicines down the toilet.
* Ask friends and family to safeguard their prescription drugs at their homes. Households without children living there can allow unmonitored access because the homeowners might not be aware of the dangers.
Source: National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign website "Parents. The Anti-Drug"
"We saw a lot of accidental overdoses involving death where these young adults were combining pills and didn't realize the deadly effect of combining certain drugs," he said.
The time-release nature of some medications can be deadly when someone in search of a high doesn't like the effect of a single dose and follows it with another or a different drug to get the desired effect, Black said.
"Unfortunately, some of them will go home and die in their sleep as the toxicity level increases and their blood pressure drops and their heart stops beating," he said.
"We have to do more to address this problem because people are dying."
The drug task force and local school officials will present "Pill Poison" at LaFayette High School Monday night for parents, following a daytime presentation for students to raise awareness of the dangers of prescription drug use.
One in five high school students nationally admitted taking a prescription drug that was not prescribed for them, according to a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2009 National Youth Risk Behavior Survey.
The survey asked more than 16,000 high school students whether they had ever taken drugs like OxyContin, Percocet, Vicodin, Adderall, Ritalin or Xanax without a doctor's prescription.
Howell Wechsler, of the CDC Division of Adolescent and School Health, said officials are "concerned to learn that so many high school students are taking prescription drugs that were not prescribed to them."
The study shows prescription drug use was higher among white and Hispanic students than black students, but there was no difference between genders.
Georgia Bureau of Investigation records show the Peach State averages two deaths a day from prescription drug overdose, and the Lookout Mountain Judicial District has more than tripled its number of prescription drug cases since 2008, officials said in August.
LaFayette High School parent involvement coordinator Lugenia Suttles said school officials want to be aggressive in raising awareness among students and parents or guardians.
"Pill Poison" is the first installment in the school's Rambler Pride Parent Series that later will include presentations on topics ranging from abusive relationships, peer pressure and dating, to bullying, pregnancy and suicide, according to Suttles.
The events are aimed at 14- to 19-year-olds and their families, she said.
Suttles, who just took up the parent involvement coordinator post this year, said an educational program about the dangers is the best prevention step officials can take.
"Many children are not being raised by the traditional mom and dad; they're being raised by aunts or uncles, or grandparents," Suttles said.
Some parents and older relatives might not be as informed about prescription drug dangers, she speculated. She said the "Pill Poison" presentation helps fill the gap.
"We want to give them every available resource they can have in our community so they can head off those issues as they come down the road," she said.
Ben Benton is a news reporter at the Chattanooga Times Free Press. He covers Southeast Tennessee and previously covered North Georgia education. Ben has worked at the Times Free Press since November 2005, first covering Bledsoe and Sequatchie counties and later adding Marion, Grundy and other counties in the northern and western edges of the region to his coverage. He was born and raised in Cleveland, Tenn., a graduate of Bradley Central High School. Benton ...
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