Welcome to the Shroomery Message Board! Please  login or  register to post messages and view our members-only content. You'll gain access to additional forums, encrypted messages, file attachments, board customizations, and much more!
|
 b0red5tiff
THE CANDY KING
   
Registered: 09/16/06
Posts: 5,276
Loc: \m/
Last seen: 1 minute, 33 seconds
|
 Abuse of prescription drugs is booming
#7119874 - 07/02/07 02:56 PM |
|
|
http://news.galvestondailynews.com/story.lasso?ewcd=6e760db558d9fd2a647b56e8e79db721&-session=TheDailyNews:AAE0087E1123f02811GLsTEBB777
The first time, it seemed so harmless.
Carolyn was sitting at the classroom desk, oblivious to the instruction going on around her, ready.
She waited for the oblong, white pill making its way toward her.
She was anxious to become like her older friends and eager to be the first in her grade to do it. It was more than that, though. She wanted to relax and forget about everything. She was just 11, but already life at home and school seemed too much to handle.
So when her older boyfriend passed her that first tablet, she took it right there in class, unnoticed by the teacher or other students.
It was the first pill of many.
Soon, almost miraculously, the world slowed down and Carolyn’s problems at home, her arguments with her parents and her bad grades didn’t matter.
“I was young,” she said. “I was a kid. But it didn’t seem like I was young then. It seemed like they were all doing it, so I should do it, too.”
Carolyn, now 18, just graduated from the Clear Creek Independent School District high school that she used to supply with drugs.
Even though she’s been clean for two years, the problems her school and others across the country are having with prescription medications aren’t over — they’re getting worse.
An epidemic
Carolyn’s first pill in that sixth-grade classroom was Xanax — an anti-anxiety drug with skyrocketing illicit use. It’s not the only prescription medication being used by teens to get high.
Law enforcement officials have seen painkillers such as Vicodin and OxyContin, muscle relaxers such as Soma, stimulants such as Adderral and prescription cough syrup with codeine sold and abused just like illicit street drugs.
Nationwide, street drug use among teens is slowing down, but abuse of prescription drugs is booming.
Today’s teens are more likely to have abused prescription medications than a variety of other drugs, including cocaine, LSD, methampetamine and heroin, according to a 2005 study conducted by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America. That study found that one in five teens had experimented with painkillers to get high.
It’s also getting worse. The 2006 Monitoring the Future survey, a study done annually to monitor drug use among eighth-, 10th- and 12th-graders, showed a trend that local law enforcement officials confirm — abuse of prescription drugs has doubled since 2002.
In Galveston County, it’s not uncommon for police to pull someone over for erratic driving and find multiple pill bottles with different names on each.
The number of such cases has quadrupled in the past six years, Kemah police Lt. Rick McCollum said.
In Friendswood, about 40 percent of drug arrests are for prescription pills, Chief Bob Wieners said.
And although cities in other parts of the county see pills being used and sold, Wieners said it’s a bigger problem in the suburbs.
“They have the cocaine and the crack,” he said. “We have the pill problem. And our numbers show it’s not just (Friendswood). We’re arresting people from League City, Pearland and Webster for pills.”
Authorities are finding students with pills in school across Galveston County, said Glen Watson, the administrator of a residential program at the county’s juvenile justice center.
“I wouldn’t say any school district has a bigger problem with it than any others,” he said. “It’s everywhere. It’s really probably the most emerging trend of drug abuse in our country.”
Friendswood Police Capt. Shari Burrows said she saw a noticeable spike in prescription use about 18 months ago.
“I’m not talking about six or seven pills a day,” she said. “You wouldn’t believe it — 30 pills a day. A month’s supply, gone. It’s shocking to see how much they’re taking. That’s why they get caught. You can only hide that kind of habit for so long.”
‘A recipe for death’
Those habits don’t usually form overnight. Carolyn said that as a sixth-grader, she took only one pill every couple of weeks. Eventually, the highs lost their sting and she started taking more — this time supplied by the medicine cabinet of her friend’s grandmother.
By the time she was in high school, she was using multiple pills every day and about to move on to harder drugs.
For many teens, it’s not the pills alone that create the high.
Most users combine prescription pills with alcohol or other drugs.
David Gomel, the administrator of adolescent programs for the Rosecrance Health Network, a nationwide drug treatment facility, said the risky patterns could have lethal effects.
“When you’re taking a depressant and maxing the impact by mixing it with a chemical, that’s a recipe for death,” he said. “It’s the same risk as other drugs. These kids are dying over the use.”
Susan, a 15-year-old who has been off drugs for about five months, said she used to mix marijuana, Xanax and codeine-laced Sprite to get high.
She was so high riding her bike one night that she fell, split her eyelid open and refused to get in an ambulance until someone got her some food — a symptom of the hunger pangs caused by the Xanax and marijuana.
Mixing the codeine drink with pills and marijuana gave her a quick and strong high, but had other, devastating consequences.
The drugs clouded most of her memories of all-night partying, but she can’t shake the feeling of the morning six months ago, when she woke up knowing she’d been raped.
“It’s something I never thought would happen to me,” she said. “I blanked out. Everyone was telling me that I had no clothes on, that I was screaming.”
The rape triggered her to stop the pill use, but wasn’t enough to keep her out of trouble. She got caught with marijuana, upgrading her juvenile delinquency status to the point that she had to live at a juvenile facility for 10 months.
At five months in, she doesn’t think she’ll go back to that lifestyle. Then, she was living with friends and without a guardian. When she’s released, she’ll live with her aunt who recently got custody of her.
“I was in a bad situation,” she said. “It was a bad spot in my life. Now I don’t have to run no more.”
‘Everyone is doing something’
The culture of pill-popping teens isn’t just made of runaways and heavy drug users. Often, it’s the people you’d least expect, Carolyn said.
At the affluent school she went to, students sleeping in class weren’t always simply tired — they were coming down off drugs. She could look around the room and know they were users — everyone from computer nerds to popular athletes.
At parties, she saw everything.
“We don’t sit in a circle and pop pills or anything, but everyone is doing something,” she said.
Carolyn said she never went to a “pharm party” — a gathering where everyone brings different prescriptions and passes pills around freely.
At the parties she went to, pills were sold and used but not the only type of drug there.
But 14-year-old Mason, a Galveston resident, said he went to parties centered around specific drugs.
“Whatever it was, a pill party or a smoke out, they would say it,” he said. “Then you know that’s what everyone is going to do.”
It’s also clear there are teens embracing pill parties nationwide. On the video-sharing Web site YouTube, hundreds of video clips showing teens strung out on pills and alcohol at parties are added and viewed daily.
A stigma-free stimulant
It’s a drug pattern that’s common among “good kids” who say they’d never consider using heroin or cocaine. Because it’s a doctor-prescribed drug, it seems safer, even if the prescription isn’t written to them.
Susan said she stayed away from “hard” drugs, but didn’t think pills were that risky.
But painkillers like Vicodin and OxyContin have the same chemical effects as using heroin, Gomel said.
“You’re not going to get much heavier than that,” he said. “I guess that’s one of the concerns that we have. It’s prescribed by a doctor so there’s a feeling that it’s not as dangerous.”
And while there might be a social stigma of using heavy drugs, prescription medication is accepted in society.
“We’re in a quick fix society,” he said. “If you want to lose weight, take this pill. There’s such an acceptance level of this drug culture that’s being pushed forward, it’s altering the societal norms of these kids. We have kids less and less frightened about experiencing new drugs, not realizing the danger.”
Keeping kids away
Warning children about the dangers of drugs only helps slightly, Dr. Stanton Peele said.
Peele, author of the book “Addiction Proof Your Child,” said keeping children away from drugs isn’t the way to prevent abuse.
“It’s the one thing that parents try that doesn’t work,” he said. “Parents say, ‘Let’s just protect them from ever being exposed to it.’”
Peele said that instead, parents should raise their children to be independent, value achievements and teach them to have control over their lives.
“In a person’s life, they are going to encounter something that seems overwhelming at a time,” he said. “The one thing parents can give them is that support and confidence to overcome that.”
While many teens, such as Carolyn, said stress led them to the pills, giving up the drugs can be even more stressful.
When teens try to get off the pills, they often find everyday situations overwhelmingly stressful, Marsha Baker, the administrator of the teen treatment facility Phoenix House, said.
“Their bodies are so used to being medicated,” she said. “They’re going to feel lots and lots of stress that they’ve not felt for a long time. That’s why it’s going to be really, really hard for them to stop using on their own.”
Carolyn said it was difficult to ignore the cravings while she got used to a drug-free life. Some days, she still wants them.
But instead, she focuses on the bigger picture. She’s about to leave for college and study to become a kindergarten teacher.
“I asked for a second chance and I ended up getting about 20,” she said. “Not everyone is that lucky.”
--------------------
|
 Stephen
Friend
Registered: 01/25/07
Posts: 156
Loc: North Carolina
Last seen: 12 hours, 4 minutes
|
|
" one in five teens had experimented with painkillers to get high. "
i love bullshit statistics.
--------------------
"To use your head, you have to get out of your mind." -Timothy Leary
|
 MrKite1
Cosmo
Registered: 03/02/04
Posts: 1,123
Loc: AK
|
 Re: Abuse of prescription drugs is booming [Re: Stephen]
#7120344 - 07/02/07 04:32 PM |
|
|
Yeah, I like bullshit statistics also, always good for a laugh. Quote:
There are lies, damned lies, and statistics.
Where the hell are these "pharm parties" these articles always mention? I've never heard of anyone doing that, it sounds ridiculous. 
--------------------
When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.
|
Purple_spore
Compulsively Skeptical
Registered: 09/11/05
Posts: 155
Loc: tejas------>nor cal
Last seen: 2 months, 29 days
|
Re: Abuse of prescription drugs is booming [Re: MrKite1]
#7120575 - 07/02/07 05:31 PM |
|
|
"Today’s teens are more likely to have abused prescription medications than a variety of other drugs, including cocaine, LSD, methampetamine and heroin, according to a 2005 study conducted by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America. That study found that one in five teens had experimented with painkillers to get high
It’s also getting worse. The 2006 Monitoring the Future survey, a study done annually to monitor drug use among eighth-, 10th- and 12th-graders, showed a trend that local law enforcement officials confirm — abuse of prescription drugs has doubled since 2002."
I would agree with this.
--------------------
Be contagious: spread knowledge and love not intolerance and hate
|
AtPeace
POWD
Registered: 06/16/07
Posts: 200
Loc: Florida
Last seen: 4 months, 28 days
|
|
I went to a party once were people had a bowl(soup bowl) of pills to come down it was more of a coke party though.
--------------------
Im FREE........ Until the 7th.
|
GWAR
Scumdog of the Universe
Registered: 05/03/02
Posts: 922
Loc: Antarctica
Last seen: 3 days, 15 hours
|
Re: Abuse of prescription drugs is booming [Re: MrKite1]
#7120974 - 07/02/07 07:15 PM |
|
|
I've only heard of "pharm parties" from some TV show, i think it was Law and Order or something like that.
--------------------
"Freedom to all the people... Brave, true and strong... Freedom to all the people... Unless I think you're wrong!!!"
|
usefulidiot13
Higher Than Ive Ever Been.
Registered: 05/22/07
Posts: 3,021
Loc: behind the scenes
Last seen: 18 hours, 42 minutes
|
Re: Abuse of prescription drugs is booming [Re: GWAR]
#7121732 - 07/02/07 10:08 PM |
|
|
yeah i have NEVER heard of a pharm party, and i have done a nice share of pain killers and downers
and that stat is probably more like fuckin 3 out of 5 in my town...AT LEAST...
EVERYBODY is addicted to vicodin or oxy or methadone or xanax in my home town...and it is because the town blows so much ass that the only thing you can do is get fucked up
its not like the people who matter care anyways...business is booming as well when it comes to prescription pills...
plus society sucks so badly that a kids only escape IT SEEMS is poppin some pills...easier than drinking, safer because you know what you are taking in exact dosages, and cheap at first...before you know it, you are out of hand and dont even know how you got there...
jimmy eat world's song "Drugs or Me" is awesome when you have realized that you need to change your drug habits
--------------------
Talkin shit about a pretty sunset.
Edited by usefulidiot13 (07/02/07 10:10 PM)
|
brodus24
Fruit of the Boomer
Registered: 03/21/07
Posts: 128
Last seen: 4 months, 25 days
|
|
Pharm Parties are very common among the younger set in major cities, such as Chicago and NYC.
I'm older and live in one of the aforementioned cities. As someone above posted, the party pharms I see regularly where I live are for post-coke, i.e. lots of Viocdin/Vicoprofin, Xanax, and Valium.
There is also a market among musicians and late-nighters for prescription stims.
And there are a few sad souls that prefer the narctoci pain relievers to all else, resorting to smoking fentanyl patches and dangerous shiat like that.
But pharmies are HUUUUGE. That story doesn't suprise me at all.
|
emit
Trippy 70's Sci-Fi Movie
Registered: 06/20/07
Posts: 122
Loc: my place ;)
Last seen: 9 days, 4 hours
|
Re: Abuse of prescription drugs is booming [Re: brodus24]
#7122926 - 07/03/07 03:03 AM |
|
|
never seen a real pharm party 
--------------------
yes...
|
Apollyphelion
Dungeon Master/ 2-Un-cool-4-U
Registered: 03/15/07
Posts: 4,763
Loc: Festival of Deaths
Last seen: 5 minutes, 10 seconds
|
Re: Abuse of prescription drugs is booming [Re: emit]
#7123302 - 07/03/07 08:31 AM |
|
|
They are talking bout Fat Pharm parties where the black people...oh wait nevermind
--------------------
"Banned from Exsistence, Exiled from the Void
I stand couragously alone
Following the only Golden Road of Love
That lies ahead of me."
"Are you a Candykid? Sk8terboi? Goth, punk, freak, hippie? Jock, rapper, banger, prep, hardcore, straightedge? Tripper, spinner, biker, thug, emokid? Yeah? Whatever"
|
Omni
n,n-omt
Registered: 05/08/07
Posts: 9,309
|
|
i dont understand why kids are popping so many damn prescription pills these days
Edited by Adagio (08/09/07 11:41 AM)
|
TheDrake
Stranger
Registered: 06/15/07
Posts: 106
Last seen: 8 months, 10 days
|
Re: Abuse of prescription drugs is booming [Re: Omni]
#7126569 - 07/03/07 10:37 PM |
|
|
will power
| |
|
|
You cannot start new topics / You cannot reply to topics
HTML is disabled / UBBCode is enabled
Moderator: veggie, Carlito
1,096 topic views. 1 registered and 7 anonymous users are browsing this forum.
[ Toggle Favorite | Print Topic ]
| | |
|
|
Previous
Index
Next
Threaded
Edit 
Reply 
Quote 
