The conclusion of an annual survey for the National Institute on Drug Abuse that teenagers are increasingly turning to prescription and over-the-counter drugs to get high received significant media attention. It was covered by two major network newscasts for over three minutes, and articles on the story appeared in major national newspapers.
      The CBS Evening News (12/21, story 5, 0:22, Couric) reported, "We've got some good and bad news tonight about American teenagers. A new government survey shows fewer are drinking or using illegal drugs, but more teens are getting high on drugs they find in their parents' medicine chest. One out of 10 high school seniors has used Vicodin, and one out of 14 has used cough syrup to get high."
      ABC World News (12/21, story 7, 2:45, Gibson) reported, "Teenagers are increasingly turning to legal drugs, from painkillers, to cough syrup, to get high." ABC (Thomas) added, "According to the newly released survey, one out of every 10 high school seniors reported using the painkiller Vicodin in the last year. And disturbing numbers of young people are also abusing cough and cold medicine. Most have no idea how dangerous an overdose of cough syrup can be." Thomas continued, "Government officials say parents have to better safeguard the drugs in the house." John Walters, the Director of National Drug Control Policy, was shown saying, "They get the drugs not from dealers on the street but out of medicine cabinets in their own homes." Thomas added, "Ads are now running to target the prescription drug problem. Some teen addicts say young people need to constantly hear the anti-drug message."
      USA Today (12/22, 3A, Leinwand) reports that the survey, conducted by the University of Michigan for the National Institute on Drug Abuse, found that "abuse of the painkiller OxyContin by younger teens hit record levels in 2006," as "2.6% of eighth-graders and 3.8% of 10th-graders reported having used the drug, up from 1.8% and 3.2% in 2005."
      The Christian Science Monitor (12/22, Marks) adds that the "abuse of medicines, both over-the-counter and prescription, is rising." The survey's "findings were backed by recent studies done by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America in New York." John Walters, director of National Drug Control Policy, "warned that the increase in the abuse of medicines has to be addressed now." The "most important" challenge is "how to apply the prevention tools that have apparently succeeded in combating illegal drug use to fight the abuse of legal medicines." Focus groups found that kids think that prescription and over-the-counter "drugs are either safe, or at least safer, because they're legal." Yet "another challenge for prevention experts is finessing a message that these legal drugs are safe when used properly, but can be life threatening when abused. That challenge is compounded by both easy access to legal drugs on the Internet and the nation's advertising culture."
      The Detroit Free Press /AP (12/22, Jordan) adds, "The rise in prescription drug abuse was a troubling conclusion in a study that Walters described as good news overall because of the drop in teen use of alcohol, cigarettes, marijuana and other illicit substances." Teens using "cough syrup to get high is particularly alarming, experts said, because the medicine is cheap and easy to get. Moreover, few people -- teens and their parents alike -- recognize the dangers of overdosing on the otherwise safe and legal drugs."
      The Washington Post (12/22, A3, Lee) quotes Walters saying, "If there is one thing that every adult can do today to help protect young people against prescription drugs, it is go to your medicine cabinet, take those prescription drugs you are finished using and throw them away."
      The New York Times (12/22, A33, Cohen) notes that Dr. Lloyd D. Johnston, the survey's principal investigator and program director at the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan, said, "prescription drug abuse represents a larger part of the total problem."
      HealthDay (12/22, Gardner) reports, "Experts said the results were more or less expected." Dr. Grant Mitchell, chief of psychiatry at Northern Westchester Hospital Center, in Mount Kisco, N.Y., said it "doesn't surprise me," because, "as we write more and more prescriptions for potentially legitimate uses for parents, it provides access for kids. They don't have the same need to go out and procure illicit drugs."
      WebMD (12/22, Zwillich) notes, "Researchers reported evidence of a dip in prescription narcotic use by high school seniors, but the decrease was canceled out by a rise among younger students."

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com