foolsgold
Bluelighter
RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- North Carolina health and law enforcement officials say they're concerned about the growing problem of prescription drug abuse in young people.
Police say teens are abusing many prescriptions drugs including painkillers like oxycodone and anti-anxiety pills like Klonopin, Xanax, and Valium.
Police say teens often steal prescription drugs from medicine cabinets and then sell the pills.
"Within an hour one in four teens can access prescription medications, and within a day, one in three," explained Tom Ray with the Poe Center for Health Education.
Teens are doing it to get high and also make money.
"They can turn around and sell those for $10 or $20 per pill. This is a market that is out there in our schools today," said Ray.
It's a market with deadly consequences. In North Carolina, 25 percent of all teenage suicides involve prescription drugs. The number of accidental overdoses is even more staggering.
"The death rate for high school students is up almost 40 percent in the last two years," explained Donnie Varnell with the State Bureau of Investigation.
Law enforcement officials are trying to get the message out to school officials, social workers, and local police.
"I've been contacted by some high schools recently who say they've been suspending a kid every week for prescription narcotics," said Varnell.
But school officials say they can only do so much.
"We can only control so much of it at the school level. It has to be something that parents talk with their children about," said Tomeka Ward Satterfield, who works as an assistant high school principal. "It has to be a community solution to the problem."
Drug awareness experts say one of the best ways parents can avoid prescription medication getting into children's' hands is to hide them.
If you want to get rid of the drugs you don't need any more, don't throw them away or pour them down the sink. Take them to your local police dept medicine drop box. It's the safest way to dispose of them.
For more information, visit these websites:
http://stopmedicineabuse.org/
http://darecasa.org/casa/
http://www.poehealth.org/
6 Tips for Parents - DrugFree.org (.pdf)
Finding help for your child (.pdf)
Drug guide for parents (.pdf)
http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?s...gates&id=8975013&rss=rss-wtvd-article-8975013
Police say teens are abusing many prescriptions drugs including painkillers like oxycodone and anti-anxiety pills like Klonopin, Xanax, and Valium.
Police say teens often steal prescription drugs from medicine cabinets and then sell the pills.
"Within an hour one in four teens can access prescription medications, and within a day, one in three," explained Tom Ray with the Poe Center for Health Education.
Teens are doing it to get high and also make money.
"They can turn around and sell those for $10 or $20 per pill. This is a market that is out there in our schools today," said Ray.
It's a market with deadly consequences. In North Carolina, 25 percent of all teenage suicides involve prescription drugs. The number of accidental overdoses is even more staggering.
"The death rate for high school students is up almost 40 percent in the last two years," explained Donnie Varnell with the State Bureau of Investigation.
Law enforcement officials are trying to get the message out to school officials, social workers, and local police.
"I've been contacted by some high schools recently who say they've been suspending a kid every week for prescription narcotics," said Varnell.
But school officials say they can only do so much.
"We can only control so much of it at the school level. It has to be something that parents talk with their children about," said Tomeka Ward Satterfield, who works as an assistant high school principal. "It has to be a community solution to the problem."
Drug awareness experts say one of the best ways parents can avoid prescription medication getting into children's' hands is to hide them.
If you want to get rid of the drugs you don't need any more, don't throw them away or pour them down the sink. Take them to your local police dept medicine drop box. It's the safest way to dispose of them.
For more information, visit these websites:
http://stopmedicineabuse.org/
http://darecasa.org/casa/
http://www.poehealth.org/
6 Tips for Parents - DrugFree.org (.pdf)
Finding help for your child (.pdf)
Drug guide for parents (.pdf)
http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?s...gates&id=8975013&rss=rss-wtvd-article-8975013
