More Teens abusing Prescription Drugs

A warning from the Partnership at DrugFree.org, where Steve Pasierb is the president, that American teenagers are continuing to buy prescription pills from their friends or raid their parents’ medicine cabinets to find pills and get high.  “What we see is over the last five years, a 33% increase in teen misuse and abuse of prescription drugs, so even though this has gotten a ton of attention, things are not turning around.” Pasierb says the study found American teenagers are continuing to buy prescription pills from their friends who have been diagnosed as ADHD.  “Kids who believe they have a big test and they need that edge are going out and scoring somebody else’s Ritalin.” American teenagers are increasingly abusing prescription drugs, often from the family medicine cabinet. Pasierb tells parents that if they have pills left over what to do.  “These medicines should not be sitting under the bathroom sink, they need to be disposed of, flushed down the toilet.” He says parents are not being careful enough.  “Parents admitted in the research to misusing medicines themselves and they also do things like share their antibiotics with their kids, which teaches their kids that they can use medicines that are not prescribed for them.” Educate your kids about the dangers associated with prescription drugs and do a better job of disposing of old prescription medications, once you stop taking them.