AP article, Painkillers popular among American teenagers

[mvm...@yahoo.com]

Hi all, I came across this article today and thought it had some
relevance to this organization.

I frequently hear law enforcement officers talk about increases in RX
drug abuse in highschools. Many of the kids experimenting with
oxycotin and vicodin would never think about trying crack/cocaine,
heroin, or meth. There is a belief that if a doctor issues these
drugs that they can not be just as harmful as the previously mentioned
illicit substances. I thought this is a scary statement from the
article, "...at least one in every 20 high school seniors has at least
tried OxyContin, a powerful narcotic drug, in the past year. The
popularity of the painkiller Vicodin also remained constant. The
percentage of students using Vicodin was 2.7 percent, 7.2 percent and
9.6 percent in 8th, 10th and 12th grades, respectively..."

Last year Operation Clean Sweep, in Michigan, removed tons of these
drugs with street value totaling $500,000. Taking any amount of these
substances off the streets and out of the schools of Northwest Ohio
will be another great benefit to the community provided by this
project.

Sincerely,
Mike Morrison





Painkillers popular among American teenagers

Illicit drug use by teens continued to gradually decline overall this
year, but the use of prescription painkillers remains popular among
young people, according to a federally financed study released
Tuesday.
The survey, by the University of Michigan's Institute for Social
Research, looked at the behavior of 8th, 10th and 12th graders
nationwide. The study, in its 33rd year, found that overall drug use
is falling, thanks to a drop in the popularity of marijuana and
methamphetamines. But it also found that teen use of other drugs, such
as cocaine, is holding steady, and narcotics like OxyContin and
Vicodin remain in vogue.
Overall, the proportion of 8th graders reporting use of an illicit
drug at least once in the 12 months before the survey was 24 percent
in 1996. It now has fallen to 13 percent -- a drop of nearly half.
Among 10th graders, the rates dropped from 39 percent to 28 percent
between 1997 and 2007. Twelfth graders saw a decline from a peak of 42
percent in 1997 to 36 percent this year.
"The cumulative declines since recent peak levels of drug involvement
in the mid-1990s are quite substantial," said Lloyd Johnston, lead
investigator.
The drugs most responsible for this year's decline in illicit drug use
are marijuana and various stimulants, including amphetamines,
methamphetamine and crystal methamphetamine.
"The most encouraging statistic relates to the use of methamphetamine,
which has plummeted by an impressive 64 percent since 2001," President
Bush said.

At least one in every 20 high school seniors has at least tried
OxyContin, a powerful narcotic drug, in the past year. The popularity
of the painkiller Vicodin also remained constant. The percentage of
students using Vicodin was 2.7 percent, 7.2 percent and 9.6 percent in
8th, 10th and 12th grades, respectively.
The study also reported an increase in the use of ecstasy. Ecstasy use
among teens dropped dramatically in the early 2000s, as concern about
the consequences of use grew. However, the proportion of students
seeing great risk in using this drug has been in decline for the past
two or three years at all three grade levels, and use has begun to
increase, at least in the upper grades.
Among the study's other findings:
--Amphetamine use peaked in the mid-1990s among eighth and 10th
graders, but since then, use has fallen by more than one-half among
8th graders to 4 percent and by one-third among 10th graders to 8
percent this year.
--Use of "meth" has been declining since it was first measured in 1999.
Annual prevalence is now down by about two-thirds in all three grades
from what it was in 1999.
--Marijuana still remains the most widely used of all the illicit
drugs. The decline in 2007 among 8th graders fell from 11.7 percent in
2006 to 10.3 percent in 2007. Tenth graders showed a modest continuing
decline in marijuana use, while 12th graders showed no further change
this year after a significant decline in 2006.
--Cocaine was the one stimulant that did not show a decline this year.
Between 2 percent and 5 percent of the 8th, 10th and 12th graders
surveyed said they had tried it in the 12 months before the survey.
Crack use, which previously declined in all three grades, showed no
further decline this year.
--The study tracked a fairly sharp increase in the use of anabolic
steroids by male teens in the late 1990s, 2000, 2001 and 2002. Since
those peak years, the annual prevalence rate has dropped by more than
half among the 8th and 10th grade males -- to 1.1 percent and 1.7
percent, respectively -- and by 40 percent among 12th-grade males to
2.3 percent this year.
--The number of U.S. teens who smoke has shown significant declines in
recent years. The rate of teens who reported smoking in the 30 days
before the survey is now down by two-thirds among 8th graders to 7
percent from the peak level reached in 1996 of 21 percent.


By DEB RIECHMANN
Associated Press Writer