More teenagers dying of drug overdoses

Vanita Hullander is tired of cutting open the dead bodies of teenagers.

As the coroner in Catoosa County, she said she has seen an increasing number of 18- to 19-year-olds dying from overdoses in the last two years. And the ages are only getting lower.

"Teenagers are just not afraid to try anything," Hullander said. "There's no stigma anymore."

A June 3 report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed one in five high school students has taken a prescription drug that he or she didn't get from a doctor.

Some don't survive the experience.

On a cold Saturday morning in March 2008, Tammy Dickey arrived at work at Walmart expecting to meet her lively, redheaded son, Timmy Smith, who also worked there.

Timmy, 16, had been at a friend's house the night before, but he wasn't at work when Dickey arrived that morning.

She called the friend's house, and the boy's mother said she'd go see if Timmy was awake.

Timmy had died in his sleep.

"He just laid down and he never woke up," Dickey said.

He had been killed by four OxyContin pills taken too closely together.

Dickey later found out that her son had been given the pills by a 15-year-old acquaintance in shop class at Ringgold High School. That boy had stolen the pills from his grandfather, who had terminal cancer.

Timmy took two pills, then two more when he didn't initially feel an effect.

As far as Dickey knows, it was Timmy's first time trying pills.

Timmy's high school friend Stephanie Lawler said seeing him in his coffin "was my worst nightmare."

"I thought 'Why, God? Why him?'" said Lawler. "He was sweet, energetic, kind, whole-hearted."

Larry Black, commander of the Lookout Mountain Drug Task Force, said he's no longer surprised by the young age of prescription overdose abusers and victims.

"We're seeing a trend where young adults are going to these pills instead of meth, marijuana and crack cocaine," said Black.

The appeal, Black said, is the easy access to the drugs and the fact that their effects are hard for parents or others to detect, unlike smoking or drinking.

Teens also frequently buy, sell and trade with each other, Black said. A survey by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America's 2007 Partnership Attitude Tracking Study found that eight of 10 teens who misuse prescription drugs steal, buy or obtain the drugs from friends or relatives.

Whenever task force members find illegal drugs on teenagers, they comb through their cell phones, Black said.

"Just about in every case you have these text messages back and forth where they're 'buying hydros, selling hydros, buying Xanax and selling Xanax' - and it goes on and on," Black said.

Teens also text each other with pill-taking advice - which is most often faulty, he said.

"We've got these kids giving asinine medical advice by text, telling other kids it's OK to mix certain drugs," Black said.

Dickey says that, in many ways, her son's death still hasn't sunk in.

"I've gone through denial," Dickey explains. "It seems like Timmy's just been hanging out with somebody. And at some point he'll call me and I'll go pick him up."

Whenever she sees red-haired boys out of the corner of her eye, she can't help but take a second look, she said.

Black warned that if parents notice their kids showing signs such as slurred speech, red eyes and fatigue, and there's no trace of alcohol or illegal drugs, they need to get their child immediate medical help.

"You should take them to the emergency room and not let them lay down and go to bed at night," he said. "These kids are dying in their sleep, and their guardians are finding them the next morning."

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