Prescription Drugs
If you’re trying to identify or learn about a pill that you’ve found, scroll down to the “pill identifier” link below.
Prescription drug abuse is the fastest growing threat facing American teenagers. A ready supply of pills are typically available for purchase inside the walls of most high schools. They are also readily obtainable over the internet, delivered right to the address of your choice. No age check. No id verification. No prescription information. All that is required is a valid credit card. In 2008, teenagers across the country rated “prescription pills” as being easier to purchase than beer.(1) 47% of seventeen year-olds report having at least one friend who uses prescription medicines illegally. Even with the availability over the internet, fully 31% of these kids get the pills from home, while another 30% get them from close friends.
Pain killers like Oxycontin, Vicodin (hydrocodone) and Percocet are the favorites. But they are followed closely by stimulants like Adderal and Ritalin. Kids claim that they feel safer taking these drugs because they are cleared by the FDA, distributed by pharmacies and taken by many of their parents. Unfortunately, their illicit use does not come with safeguards of medical advice and professional monitoring. Dosing, duration of use and quality control is all left to the end user. The results have been disastrous.
In 2008, more middle aged Americans died of prescription drug overdoses than car crashes. To put it in perspective, today’s prescription drug overdose rates are 4.5 times higher than the black-tar heroin epidemic of the 1970′s, and more than twice as high as the height of the crack cocaine disaster of the 80′s & 90′s. (2)
Another common risk associated with prescription drug abuse is called “climbing the ladder.” It involves a child who begins experimenting with prescription pain killers. When the desire for pain killers increases, the habit becomes more expensive. Per dose, prescription drugs are much more expensive than illicit drugs. In an effort to satisfy the crave less expensively, the user turns to narcotic drugs like heroin. They begin by snorting the heroin, then move on to injection. It’s a process that can take years, or days. Unfortunately, the end result is almost always the same.
Preventing Prescription Drug Abuse is part education and part safeguarding. For more information on the educational aspect, visit the Preventing Drug Abuse page. It’s important for kids to know the risks associated with the unsupervised use of powerful medicines. It’s also important for parents to secure all of their medicines at home. Old medicines should not be thrown out or flushed down the toilette, but returned to the pharmacy for destruction. Don’t maintain a supply of old pills, “just in case” you need them. Secure all of your medications in a medicine safe, and monitor their levels. Medicine safes are inexpensive and readily available. Med Safe, advertises one of it’s models on this website. Click these words to visit their website.
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How do you identify a pill? 
Although prescription pills look confusing, it’s actually quite easy to identify them. If they do not have a marking on them, they are typically not prescription pills. It is more likely that they are illicit substances such as MDMA. You can bring nondescript pills to a pharmacist, but your local police department is likely going to be your best source. If the pill does have some type of marking on it, you can consult one of the many free online pharmaceutical search engines. Its the same information used by poison control centers. Click on the Drugs.com photo to be taken to one such search engine.
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References:
1.. The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (2009); Columbia University. National Survey of American Attitudes on Substance Abuse XIV: Teens and Parents. NY, NY.
2. C.D.C. Testimony Before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. March 12, 2008. Speaker: Leonard J. Paulozzi, M.D., M.P.H., Medical Epidemiologist, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Available online at (http://www.hhs.gov/asl/testify/2008/03/t20080312b.html)