Doctors, warn your patients. When parents bring home prescription painkillers, they could end up in the bloodstreams of their teenage children instead, according to new research released by White House "drug czar" John Walters. According to Walters' research, based on two 2005 surveys, 2.1 million teens abused prescription drugs in 2005. While teen use of marijuana is falling, teens' use of OxyContin and Vicodin have risen, though still in the single digits percentage-wise. While teens are sometimes getting the drugs from the Internet, it's common for them to take them from a medicine cabinet, either at home or at a friend's house, researchers said. Teens are also abusing Adderall and Xanax, which are frequently prescribed and readily available.
To learn more about the problem:
- read this article from the Associated Press