Oct. 29--DANBURY -- Teens might use drugs to get high, but more often, teens are turning to non-medical uses of prescription drugs to manage their daily lives, said Allison Fulton, executive director of the Housatonic Valley Coalition Against Substance Abuse.
"The No. 1 reason students take prescription drugs is to deal with the stress at school," Fulton said. "They think they're cleaner, safer and not as bad as illicit drugs."
Student surveys show that teens believe their parents will be less angry with them if they find out they are abusing prescription drugs instead of illicit drugs, Fulton said.
College students see a reward response when they use drugs such as Adderall -- a drug often used to treat ADHD -- because there are fewer side effects and the students get better grades, said Sharon Guck, coordinator of the Choices Program at Western Connecticut State University in Danbury.
Studies show college students are twice as likely to use Adderall than their peers who aren't enrolled in college, Guck said.
Rita Michelin, who works in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Danbury Hospital, said she has seen a definite increase in prescription drug overdose cases over the last three or four years.
"I see kids in their 20s who are addicted," Michelin said. "They started by taking a pill or two, or taking something out of their grandparents' closet."
Guck and Michelin were two panelists at a prescription drug forum hosted by HVCASA on the WestConn campus Wednesday night.
Another panelist was Jim Knight, who heads the Special Investigations Unit of the Danbury Police Department. In the last three years, Knight said, his department has seen a surge in the use of narcotics and opiates.
People usually begin by taking prescription painkillers such as Percocet or Vicodin and then graduate to Oxycontin, which is more expensive, Knight said.
"(So) they switch to heroin. Heroin is at the cheapest price I've seen in years," Knight said. "In this area, I've seen it as cheap as $7 a bag."
Often, Michelin added, doctors have to be both detectives and physicians when people request pain medication.
"When you have five minutes with a patient and he's a good actor, it's tough," Michelin said.
There is a direct correlation between the number of prescriptions written in a zip code and the number of prescription drug-related deaths that happen there, said panel moderator Elizabeth Jorgensen, who owns Insight Counseling in Ridgefield.
Jorgensen lives in Redding, a town with a population of slightly more than 8,000 people. Over the last five years, Redding has seen seven young adults die from prescription drug overdoses, she said.
Prescription drug use often becomes fatal when teens mix drugs and alcohol. Their tolerance level decreases significantly when used in that combination, Guck said.
Some doctors contend they have to prescribe drugs or they will lose the patient, said Bill Gillotti, who works in Danbury Hospital's Department of Psychiatry.
"The biggest sin is ADD and ADHD medication," Gillotti said. "It's given to kids who 25 percent of the time probably just have behavioral problems."
Guck said since pharmaceutical agencies were allowed to begin marketing directly to patients seven years ago, patients go in asking for specific medications.
There are a lot of non-narcotic ways to medicate pain, such as with antidepressants. But those methods are underemphasized, said panelist Fred Hesse of Arms Acres rehabilitation center in Carmel, N.Y.
Contact Vinti Singh at vsingh@newstimes.com or 203-731-3331.
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