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Teenage Prescription Drug AddictionTeenage prescription drug addiction is a fast-growing epidemic in our highly medicated society that is likely to worsen in the years to come.How Teens Get PillsTypically parents and other adults are the unsuspecting culprits in teenage prescription drug addiction. We've all done it: You have a back injury or you’ve had dental work done, and your doctor prescribes pain pill. You have the prescription filled "just in case" and then the bottle is lying around in your medicine cabinet. Or you have a prescription filled and then take one or two pills. The pills make you feel groggy so you save the rest, again "just in case" you have pain in the future. These bottles are lures to teen curious about trying prescription medications for recreational purposes.
Pills as CurrencyPlus, according to Joshua Lyon, author of the book, Pill Head: The Secret Life of a Painkiller Addict , many pills wind up on the streets as a form of bartering, being traded for anything from other types of drugs to even auto work. Lyon himself once traded a prescription for antibiotics to a bartender for an evening of free drinks.Such easy access plus peer pressure are two reasons why so many teenagers end up addicted to pain pills. Fun Turned UglyIn Pill Head Lyon talks about one young man who became addicted to pain pills while he was in high school. After high school he went away to summer camp where he had no access to his pills. That summer he suffered constant panic attacks. "(The pills) were horrible," he later said. "But it was much worse without them."¹While he was able to keep his grades up, he eventually lost more than thirty pounds by the time he reached college. "…I had that sort of green, opiate look," the young man recalled. "The pills had stopped being fun since the middle of college. It just turned on me. There's a distinct point where it just flips around completely, and I was taking them just to function."² Future EpidemicAs baby boomers in the United States get older, more pills will be in circulation with an increasing risk of teenage prescription drug addiction. We’ve all had it drummed into our skulls that exercise is good for our health, and it is, but seniors today work out far more than people their age in generations past. More strenuous exercise means increased pain and more trips to the doctor for pain meds.¹Joshua Lyon, Pill Head: The Secret Life of a Painkiller Addict, (New York: Hyperion, 2009), 51 ²Pill Head, Page 52 |
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