1 in 5 teens used prescription drugs illegally

Orange County guys is where I became Muslim. Yeah Oc Register.

1 in 5 teens used prescription drugs illegally
Local groups warn against danger and talk about consequences.
By JENNIFER MUIR
The Orange County Register
Comments 20 | Recommend 5

ANAHEIM – The mother with sad eyes walked across the high school stage, took off her glasses and wiped them on her black blouse.

She didn't want to come tonight, didn't want to discuss the death of her beautiful 16-year-old daughter, didn't want to recount to a room full of nearly 200 strangers how her baby – a popular soccer player from tight-knit family with no history of drug abuse – overdosed after taking cough medicine to get high.

It was the first time she had spoken about her little girl's death. She found the strength to walk across this stage, to face these "beautiful kids" and their parents, because she was hoping it might help heal the hole in her heart, might prevent another parent from having to bear the burden of losing a child to over-the-counter drugs.

"She was laying down on the hospital bed and I kissed her head and her face, her nose, her arms, her fingers, her feet," the mother, Agatha Martino, told the crowd sitting on folding chairs inside Canyon High School's cafeteria last week. "It was surreal. … We all became numb with the reality that she wasn't coming back."

This was the first of three events scheduled with high school PTAs across Orange County to address the growing problem of kids increasingly abusing prescription and over-the-counter drugs. Partnership for a Drug Free America research shows that as many as one in five teens say they have taken a prescription drug without having a prescription for it themselves in their lifetime, and as many as one in 10 have done so in the past year.

That includes everything from amphetamines commonly prescribed for Attention Deficit Disorder, such as Ritalin and Adderral, to pain killers like Xanex, Vicodin and OxyCotin.

Additionally, about 7 percent of teens have reported using over-the-counter cough medicine to get high during the past year, the Partnership for a Drug Free America says. The cold remedies are valued for an ingredient called dextromethorphan, which can cause hallucinations.

The high school meetings come after the county commissioned a report from two nonprofit agencies to assess the level of abuse among the Orange County's youth. While the report is not yet available, some of the initial findings were alarming, said Dan Gleason, the director of Community Service Program's Project PATH, which looked at such abuse in north and central Orange County.

For example, more Orange County youths died from overdosing on over-the-counter and prescription drugs from 2005 to 2007 than they did on street drugs such as methamphetamine and heroin, Gleason said. Project Path looked at Orange County Coroner data, which shows that among youths ages 12 to 25, 42 died from overdosing on prescription or over-the-counter drugs during the three-year period, while 38 died from overdosing on street drugs, he said.

LUCIA'S STORY

Lucia Martino was not the type of person anyone expected to die from a drug overdose.

She was an athlete and came from a large Italian family that was very close. She was a junior at Canyon High School.

One night, while her parents were sleeping, she swallowed 20 Coricidin pills to get high – the second time she had experimented with the over-the-counter cough medicine. Her mother, Agatha, found her vomiting the next morning and took her to the hospital.

For four days, doctors, friends and family members asked Lucia if she had done anything that might have caused her illness. And for four days, she said nothing.

It wasn't until after she fell into a coma that a friend asked a nurse whether the Coricidin pills could be to blame. By then her liver was destroyed. She died less than a day later in Sept. 2006. She was 16.

Ever since, her bedroom at home has remained exactly the same, papered with photos from formal dances, hanging out with friends and playing soccer.

"It's the most God-awful feeling in the whole world not to have your little girl," Agatha Martino said. "There's a huge hole in the house, and it's awful."

At the funeral, her parents left open the casket so kids could see how the drugs caused Lucia's 125-pound body to swell to 170 pounds, according to news reports. Still, Agatha Martino learned from friends that while some of the kids swore off drugs after Lucia's death, others left the funeral and got high that night.

"You're a really beautiful group of kids," she told the crowd watching silently at Canyon High last week. "Please talk to your parents about everything. And parents, I don't know if it will help, but communicate with your kids."

FINDING SOLUTIONS

One roadblock in combatting over-the-counter and prescription drug abuse is that many parents don't know it's a problem, and kids and parents alike don't realize these drugs can be as dangerous as their illegal counterparts.

After Lucia Martino's death, the PTSA sent out warnings to parents about drug abuse and held meetings to discuss it. Still, abuse continues to be a problem at Canyon and many other high schools across the county.

A quarter of 11th graders from Anaheim Union School District have reported abusing over-the-counter cough and cold medicine, said Gleason, citing data his nonprofit analyzed from the California Healthy Kids Survey. Some 28 percent of 11th graders in Santa Ana Union School District report abusing pain killers, Gleason said.

So when CSP approached Canyon High's PTSA about hosting a town hall meeting, they jumped at the chance.

The crowd in Canyon High's auditorium was mixed: Nearly 200 PTSA volunteers, parents and students seeking resources, and kids who were getting extra credit in class.

They listened as Assistant Principal Frank Huerta, who's in charge of student discipline, told them he's still finding out about kids abusing these drugs. They heard Department of Justice agent Sara Marie Simpson tell them about common slang kids use to describe over-the-counter and prescription substances. They heard Frank Bohler, a retired director of Orange Unified School District's office of child welfare and attendance, talk about approaching a problem that many parents don't even know about.

And some wiped away tears while Agatha Martino recounted her story. Afterward, teens and parents split up to talk about strategies for curbing this type of drug abuse.

Parents learned to let their kids know that abusing prescription drugs and cough medicine is just as dangerous as using illegal drugs, that they should treat medicine like they do liquor around the house and consider locking it up or not keeping much of it around. And they learned about resources, such as drugfree.org, where they can go to find out more.

The students drew posters illustrating the dangers of prescription drug abuse, scrawling slogans such as "Eat Candy, Not Drugs" and "If you're high and you know it, you're stupid."

One group listed methods of communication they thought would be best for getting these warnings to youth. Hearing personal stories from people like Agatha Marino topped their list, followed by getting info through text messages, Myspace.com, chain e-mails and talking to friends and family.

"The more people who hear this, the better," said Ilene Duncan, the parent education chairwoman for Canyon's PTSA. "We all think our kids are such angels, and we just want them to stay that way. We have to help them stay that way."

Contact the writer: 714-796-7813 or jmuir@ocregister.com