Expert: Teen pharm parties on rise

THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN
When psychologist David Brown talks about “teenage pharming,” he makes it clear to his audience he’s not talking about kids going to 4-H or FFA meetings.

Brown, who is on the staff at Parkview Medical Center, brings his message to two or three groups a month and on Wednesday spoke to members of the Pueblo chapter of Mental Health America about organized abuse of over-the-counter and prescription drugs by young people.

The message was timely following the death in October of 17-year-old South High School student Corey Suazo from a drug overdose linked to a pharmaceutical party. According to sources, the arrest warrants were issued recently for 19 adults and juveniles on drug-related charges with one arrest yet to be made.

The problem of teenagers getting into their parents’ pills or guzzling cough medicine is nothing new but Brown told the group that the situation is getting a lot worse. While marijuana is still the most-used illegal drug - Colorado leading the nation in its use, he added - the growth of new users of prescription drugs is greater than those beginning to use marijuana.

And they aren’t just sneaking a pill or two from the medicine cabinet, he said. Teens regularly attend parties where the admission is a bag of pills or other medications that include over-the-counter cough medicines. The drugs are dumped into a bowl and taken randomly by the handful, washed down with alcohol or high-caffeine drinks.

He said that 48 percent of the teens that come into Parkview’s emergency room are victims of over-the-counter or prescription drugs.

Parents have been on the lookout for signs their kids are using marijuana, LSD or other street drugs “but what’s not on the radar for parents is pills,” he said. Often, those pills come from the parents’ own medicine cabinet, unused prescriptions for Vicodin, codeine and other painkillers, sedatives and stimulants.

Bags have even been found with birth control pills and blood pressure and diabetes medications, Brown said, along with some aspirins kids had tried to use to gain access to a party. While it’s bad enough that kids with a credit card can order any prescription drug from shady doctors with Web sites, they can walk into any store and buy cough medicine that can produce the same effects as LSD in large enough quantities. There even are Web sites that describe the various levels of “Robotripping,” named for Robitussin, capped with the highest level that’s potentially fatal.

Cough medicines have long been popular as a legal way to get alcohol but the stronger over-the-counter ones that contain dextromethorphan, or DXM “are the killers,” he said.

Young people can hear all they want about side effects and dangers but most ignore that, he said, because of a belief that anything that’s prescribed by doctors is safe to use.

Ease of access to pills is another factor and, of course, the desire for an altered state of consciousness. Or, many teens use drugs as a way to cope with the pressures of school and adolescence in general.

As many as 35 percent of teens start getting pills from their parents' supply and less than 8 percent have to buy them, he said, based on his own surveys. About 9 percent just steal them from friends and relatives.

Vicodin is seen most frequently, followed by OxyContin, Percodan and codeine. It’s not unusual to find other drugs like Ritalin, used for hyperactivity and traditional tranquilizers such as Valium and the most abused prescription drug in the country, Xanax.

Prescription drug use was more prevalent among females, he added, with some going to the extreme of “leeching,” going off in small groups to cut themselves and put leeches on the wounds.

Brown said that parents need to watch for signs similar to mental health problems like tardiness at school, falling grades and truancy. Empty pill or cough medicine bottles are another sign, along with large numbers of highlighting pens whose fumes can be sniffed like solvents.

Parents also should take a look at their own lives. “Do you take a pill for every ill?” he asked. Throw out old medicines, he urged, so they don’t become a temptation.

http://www.chieftain.com/metro/1197530687/5

[ferk]

Prescription drug use was more prevalent among females, he added, with some going to the extreme of “leeching,” going off in small groups to cut themselves and put leeches on the wounds.

Right.

[Criptin]

While it’s bad enough that kids with a credit card can order any prescription drug from shady doctors with Web sites

Link plz.


And wasnt the whole leeching thing a joke rumor that eventually spirled into the media? >.<

[ghost]

Originally posted by drdªv€@Dec 13 2007, 12:27 PM

Prescription drug use was more prevalent among females, he added, with some going to the extreme of “leeching,” going off in small groups to cut themselves and put leeches on the wounds.

I lol'd.

[Tyutchev]

Originally posted by Criptin@Dec 14 2007, 04:48 AM

Link plz.


And wasnt the whole leeching thing a joke rumor that eventually spirled into the media? >.<

Yes.

Man I wish Robitussin really did have "exactly the same" effects as LSD, that would be pretty sweet. Robo DX and Robo LD, nice

[Shamanix]

shit... fuck this DXM stuff, i think im gonna go leeching tonight guys

[sleepysaint]

The propaganda machine has gotten so bad that they don't know how to tell the difference between facts and jokes that they made up in previous propaganda.
This is getting sad.

[SLove]

Originally posted by drdªv€@Dec 13 2007, 12:27 PM
Teens regularly attend parties where the admission is a bag of pills or other medications that include over-the-counter cough medicines. The drugs are dumped into a bowl and taken randomly by the handful, washed down with alcohol or high-caffeine drinks.

This is in the news? I'm not quite sure what to say. If there are parties like this, they deserve to be hospitalized.