Prescription pill abuse among teenagers on the rise

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(NaturalNews) Forget the Mary Jane; all the cool kids are getting high right out of mom and dad's medicine cabinet – much to the alarm of teen drug abuse watchdogs.

A new report released Wednesday showed that today's teens are shying away from illegal drugs like marijuana, but instead sharing prescription pills with potentially more dangerous effect.

John Walters, the national drug policy director, said that teens are sourcing prescription pills from the internet and their friends. Teens are more apt to take these drugs recreationally because they feel the drugs are more legal and because the drugs are more readily available.

"Drug companies are, in effect, drug dealers that supply our nation's drug abusers with a steady source of product," said Mike Adams, author of Natural Health Solutions and the Conspiracy to Keep You From Knowing About Them. "It is curious that our nation's so-called War on Drugs conveniently ignores the real drug abuse problem in this country: prescription drugs. Many of these prescription drugs are, in reality, nearly identical to heroin. In fact, Big Pharma invented heroin, speed, LSD and a number of other street drugs, even while claiming to be against drug abuse. The truth is, Big Pharma isn't against drug abuse, it's only against the abuse of drugs that it cannot profit from. That's why marijuana is illegal, but medications containing the same active chemical as marijuana remain legal."

Heroin was marketed as a painkiller by Bayer in the 1900s, LSD was invented by Sandoz Laboratories and speed -- methamphetamine – is found in the psychostimulant drug Desoxyn.

Among teens, the popular drugs to abuse include the painkiller Vicodin, Ritalin, Xanax and the stimulant Adderall.

The use of OxyContin, a painkiller, has risen among teens the past four years from 2.7 percent to 3.5 percent.

What teens do not often consider is that these drugs, like their illicit counterparts, have addictive qualities if misused and can kill, said Dr. Terry Horton, medical director for a nine-state substance abuse program.

The government report utilizes research from the federal 2005 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, which surveyed 68,308 families, and a 2005 University of Michigan study called the Monitoring the Future Survey, which gathered information from 50,000 students in the eighth, 10th and 12th grades.

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