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Looking for a new kind of high
"They are getting bored with getting drunk and looking for new ways to get high," Sumner
County teen Samantha Rogers said of her peers.
This search for a new high is resulting in a dangerous trend appearing in Sumner County and
across the nation--teenage abuse of presciption drugs and over-the-counter drugs.
"They are looking for status in their groups," said Rogers, a senior at Gallatin High School and a peer
leader with Youth Alive and Free (a drug and alcohol prevention program).
Aiding in this search is the availability of these type drugs as they are found in most
medicine cabinets or easily purchased at any number of retail outlets and on the Internet.
"They are just so available," says Linda Hackett, GHS Youth Alive and Free counselor. "While many
people who are aware of their teenagers will lock up their liquor, they don't think to lock up their medicine
cabinet."
Peer leaders at Gallatin High School add not only are students raiding medicine cabinets, they are also
taking legitimate presciptions written for them and selling those drugs to others.
"I know someone who is on Ritalin (a drug used in treating attention deficit disorder) but he
is selling his pills to others," Rogers said. For young people who don't need the drug it can cause an
amphetamine-like high or it can act in the opposite.
Already this year, 25 disciplinary hearings have been held for Sumner County students accused of
showing up at school high on such medications, a marked increase over the previous year when there
were 34 for the entire year.
And, even more alarming than the increasing use of these drugs is the ignorance of students on what
they are taking, and the dangers the drugs pose to them both physically and emotionally.
"They don't know what they are, or what they will do to them, they just take them," said Pat Conner,
coordinator of the schools system's safe and drug free school program.
In fact, some students have been so affected by the drugs they abuse they have ended up in hospital
emergency rooms taken there from school.
Earlier this year, a Sumner County student was taken from school to the hospital after passing out.
And, just last week two students from Hillsboro High School in Nashville were taken by stretcher from
their school due to prescription drug overdoses.
Members of the school system's disciplinary committee, on which Conner serves, are hearing tales
of students taking handfuls of pills from each other, passing them around like candy.
"There is a lot of sharing of these drugs among students and they are not just taking one,"
Hackett agrees.
Brandon McMurtry, also a peer counselor at GHS, says alcohol and marijuana are still the most
used drugs, but those drugs known to students as "Skittles"--which is a trademark name of a candy
but in this case is used as slang for cold medicine, Z-bars, Robotrip, Vs and O.C's--are finding their
place among teens.
Slang for Coricidin D, Xanax, Robitussin, Valium and OxyContin, these over-the-counter and prescription
drugs are all legal medications when they are used by the person they are prescribed to and used
according to doctor's orders.
But when mixed with other drugs and alcohol or taking them by the handful they are just one more
dangerous high for teens.
"They are actually crushing up some cold medications and putting them on marijuana," says
Sandy Cooper, clinical director for Bradford Health Services, a treatment center serving Sumner County.
Cooper adds the high from these drugs is similar to an, "acid trip."
By taking enough of these pills, teens can have hallucinations, euphoria and disassociative feelings,
she said.
Unfortunately, these teens do not seem to understand, or care about these dangers, opting instead for
the high.
"They don't think they are harmful," says student Paige Priest, adding some students think because
these drugs are not illegal there are no consequences either to their health or from authorities.
The increasing number of disciplinary hearings proves this theory wrong, Conner says.
For the entire 2002-03 school year 34 students were caught on school grounds high on prescription
drugs. With still three months to go in the school year school officials fear this year's numbers will
surpass last year's figures.
Also scary to school and law enforcement officials is the 25 documented cases this school year could
just be the tip of the iceberg.
These are only the students who get caught high at school. It does not reflect the number of students
using off of the school campus.
Lt. Danny Hurst, who heads up the school system's school resource officer program, blames some of the
popularity of these drugs on television commercials.
Everytime you watch television, you see a commercial for some drug that is supposed to make you
feel better," he says.
From commercials teens have unrealistic expectations.
McMurtry agrees, saying some teens will take some pills such as antidepressants to feel better,
and when they do not kick in immediately, they take more.
Some antidepressants can take weeks to build up enough in the body before the person using them
feels better. But the teens using the drugs recreationally, don't know that and can end up taking an
unsafe dosage.
"When it doesn't do what they think it should, they take more," he said.
Officials and teens say there is no typical abuser of prescription and over-the-counter medications.
"It is across the board from honor students to students with disciplinary problems," Conner says,
and the reason for using them are hauntingly familiar.
"It is the same reasons they always have had," she says. "They have got problems, they want to feel
better, everybody does it, it's the same reasons."
Students who are caught at school high on prescription or cold medications will find themselves under
the school system's zero tolerance policy for drugs, out of their school and into the alternative school.
Some may even find themselves before Sumner County Juvenile Judge Barry Brown, who says his court is
seeing an increase in this type of abuse.
Young people are going to Mom and Dad's, or even grandparents' medicine cabinets to get high, he
says, but not all these cases are the result of parental inattention.
"We have seen some cases where Mom and Dad have turned to their child after realizing what was
happening," Brown says.
Making it difficult to monitor prescription drug abuse is the convenience of finding the medications,
which when used properly are needed.
"You just don't go into the medicine cabinet and count how many pills you have, so you don't miss
five or six," Brown says.
The judge says punishment is not the court's main concern in dealing with prescription drug abuse,
it is counseling.
For some of the students who go before Brown, the next step is the Department of Children's Services
which oversees treatment.
Frank Mix, head of the local DCS office agrees with Brown's assessment--teens are finding that
common cold medications and some prescription drugs provide a high similar to some illegal drugs.
"We are seeing a lot more, particularly the use of Coricidin and similar products," Mix says, adding
treatment for this type of abuse is the same as any other drug and alcohol abuse programs.
"It is the typical addict 12-step program," he says, adding the scariest part of this type of abuse is that
it is being seen in younger age groups.
Cooper adds within the last two years, the number of cases they are treating has increased.
With this increasing problem identified, experts say public awareness is essential on getting a
handle on the problem.
"Parents must understand how accessible these medications are," Cooper says. "Kids are going to
Mom and Dad's medicine cabinet, Grandma's medicine cabinet. They can shoplift Coricidin from
Wal-Mart."
Conner stresses the importance of cleaning out medications from the medicine cabinet and keeping them
under lock and key.
"Throw away old medications, don't just leave them there, keep them locked up and talk to your
kids. Explain to them that abusing prescription and over-the-counter drugs is not just illegal,
but it has very real physical consequences," she says.
Cheryl Tatum may be reached at ctatum@mtcngroup.com or at 575-7145.
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