Easy to acquire, simple to conceal, experts and educators say prescription pills are a problem they are being forced to address with increasing frequency among teenagers. Editor’s note: This is the fourth of a multi-part series on prescription drugs. The
Easy to acquire, simple to conceal, experts and educators say prescription pills are a problem they are being forced to address with increasing frequency among teenagers.
Editor’s note: This is the fourth of a multi-part series on prescription drugs. The focus of the next part, to be published in Thursday’s edition of The Garden Island, will be on the tightrope lawmakers have to walk with regulations.
Easy to acquire, simple to conceal, experts and educators say prescription pills are a problem they are being forced to address with increasing frequency among teenagers.
“We know what’s going on. We hear of parties and situations,” Kaua‘i Complex Area Superintendent Bill Arakaki said. “We try to listen for who’s saying what and we’ll try to intervene.”
Prescription drug abuse amongst teenagers has become a rising trend throughout the United States and the Garden Isle is not immune.
Some 2,500 teens will get high for the first time today off of pharmaceuticals, according to the Partnership for a Drug Free America.
“Kids don’t understand they are prescribed for medical purposes,” said Colleen Fox, director of adolescent services at the Hina Mauka drug treatment center on O‘ahu. “When they are using them, they are getting high and it’s dangerous.”
There are many reasons teens abuse prescription pills: painkillers are used to get high, anti-depressants for stress, stimulants for a boost of energy and steroids to build muscle.
The gain from a prescription drug can seem appealing to a teen, but many don’t realize the dark side of pill abuse.
Mixing pills with alcohol can be fatal and overuse can cause addiction and life-long patterns of dependency, experts say.
The devastating effects of prescription pill abuse were seen first-hand on Kaua‘i in 2008 when a Kapa‘a High School student died after an overdose of the painkiller Oxycontin.
Arakaki said measures have been put in place over the past few years to deter the illegal use of pills amongst students in hopes of preventing another tragedy, but he acknowledged that the use of pills by students is something that happens on Kaua‘i.
Part of the appeal to prescription drugs is their accessibility. In most cases youth obtain pills from family members who don’t throw away old prescriptions or keep them tightly monitored, Fox said. (See sidebar.)
Students also buy pills from friends or misuse their own prescriptions.
At Hina Mauka, Fox said most teen cases deal with alcohol and marijuana, but the center does treat teens who abuse prescription drugs.
“We do see it more in high school students,” Fox said.
The center treated 176 students from Kaua‘i during the 2009–10 school year. Of those 176, Fox said about 2 to 3 percent were cases of prescription drugs.
“The challenge is it’s a smaller percentage of kids who come in for treatment for (abusing pills), but there are kids out there that are experimental users,” she said.
Since 95 percent of the teens receiving treatment at Hina Mauka are there voluntarily, Fox said she believes there are many more teens using that the stats can’t count.
Some school educators from around Kaua‘i said pharmaceutical abuse is not a concern at their institutions.
“We don’t have problems because there is a process in place,” Kaua‘i High School Vice Principal Penny Vess said. “If there’s a student taking pills illegally it’s against the law and there are consequences.”
The Department of Education requires students who are prescribed pills to fill out paperwork and the pills must be administered by a school official.
‘Soft data’
Jennifer Moniz, a senior counselor at Waimea High School, said she has never had a case of a student abusing pills come across her desk.
“The hard thing for me is the majority of those types of things aren’t visible,” Moniz said. “With regards to any type of drug abuse, other than noticeable outlandish behavior, it’s difficult to tell if a student is abusing drugs.”
Kapa‘a High School Vice Principal Diane Ayre said prescription drugs are harder to find on students. Whereas substances such as alcohol or marijuana may have a smell, prescription pills can be invisible.
“There’s no doubt that students are using them,” Ayre said. “It’s hard for us to find it though. You can look through a backpack but if you can’t smell it, it’s harder to find. We have a better rate with marijunana.”
The use of prescription drugs is something school officials know is happening, it’s just hard to put a finger on it, Arakaki said.
“If you look statistically — we log the incidents at school when you bust a kid — it doesn’t look like it’s happening,” he said. “We hear about it, but if we want concrete data, there isn’t much out there.
“Is there a number? I won’t be able to get that to you, because there is not. But I know when we hear from the kids. It’s happening. That’s the soft data we get.”
The discrepancy in the data hasn’t stopped Kaua‘i schools from implementing prevention programs.
Arakaki said education for drug prevention begins when students are in elementary school. There, kids are put in programs that focus on character building.
If confidence and positive character traits are implemented early on, he said they’ll have a better chance to make good decisions during their formative middle and high school years.
Studies show some students begin using pharmaceuticals before high school. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration in 2008 found that one-third of all new abusers of prescription drugs were 12 to 17 years old.
To go along with the character-building classes in elementary school, Arakaki said students participate in the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program in fifth grade.
“If you’re not able to build that foundation, when they move to the middle ages, that’s when they’re experimenting and exploring,” he said.
These programs are especially important at younger ages now because kids are being faced with life problems much earlier than in the past, Arakaki said.
With the current economic climate and more families falling upon hard times, youth may turn toward drugs as a coping method, he said. And with the advancement in technology, with most kids using phones connected to the Internet, youth are exposed to the drug culture much earlier.
“The world reaches them at a much earlier age,” Arakaki said.
Public high school students participate in a peer education program where the problem is addressed and students are required to take health and physical education courses. Those classes last a semester per year.
“We need to provide more,” Arakaki said. “We need to continue to send the message. The more they hear it, the more they’ll understand.”
Ultimately, some of the responsibility lies in the hands of the youth. The schools can only provide so much information and at some point it’s up to the student to decide whether to listen, Arakaki said.
He encourages students to be vocal if they notice something wrong with a friend. Teachers on Kaua‘i are urged to develop bonds with students so if a youth is concerned about a classmate, they feel comfortable confiding in an adult.
“If someone really cares about their friend they can come forward if they’re close to an adult,” Arakaki said. “If they can make a connection to an adult while they’re in school and we can latch on to them, we can provide support. It’s the human element that is key.”
• Tyson Alger, sports writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 237) or by emailing talger@ thegardenisland.com.
• Andrea Frainier, lifestyle writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 257) or afrainier@thegardenisland.com.
Communicate: Talk to your children about the risks associated with abusing prescription drugs and its consequences.
Monitor: Write down the number of pills you have in prescription bottles and keep track of your refills. If your child is prescribed a drug, monitor his or her doses and refills. If there are other people in your household, talk to them about the importance of safeguarding their medication.
Secure: Keep all medicines in a safe place, such as a locked cabinet. If you don’t have a locked cabinet, keep your medication out of the medicine cabinet and hide them in a place only you know about. Talk to other parents and encourage them to do the same thing.
Dispose: Discard expired or unused prescription drugs. Throw the prescription pills in the trash or contact the pharmacy that filled your prescription. Most of the time, the pharmacy will dispose of unused prescriptions for you.
Source: The Partnership for a Drug-Free America.
