Abusing prescription drugs can have serious consequences

Abusing prescription drugs can have serious consequences

Area Red Ribbon celebrations are recognizing safe, healthy and drug free lifestyles as well as a national and local decline in the use of the gateway drugs tobacco, alcohol and marijuana. While teen use of street drugs is decreasing there is a new threat available in the family medicine cabinet, prescription drugs. Prescription drugs have become the newest gateway drug with more new abusers (12 and older) than for marijuana.

Teens are intentionally abusing prescription drugs to get high or to cope with academic, emotional or social stress. These drugs include stimulants like Ritalin or Adderall used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, painkillers like OxyContin and tranquilizers like Xanax and Valium.

When taken without medical supervision, intentionally abused, or mixed with other drugs or alcohol, prescription drugs can be both dangerous and addictive. A single large dose of prescription painkillers can cause breathing difficulty and lead to death. Stimulant abuse can lead to hostility, paranoia, heart failure or fatal seizures.

Even in small doses, depressants and painkillers affect motor skills, judgment and the ability to learn. Long-term risks include the potential of addiction and relying at an early age on a drug to cope with life’s stresses establishing a learned, lifelong pattern of dependency. It is also illegal to purchase medications without a prescription and to share or sell personal medication.

The majority of young people who abuse prescription drugs get them from a relative or a friend. It is important that parents talk to their teens about the dangers of prescription drug abuse and monitor prescription drugs in the home. For more information on how to safeguard your teen checkout: http://www.theantidrug.com. The bottom line is clear. Abusing prescription drugs can have serious consequences and ruin lives.

Kathryn Molnar
Prevention Services
East Alabama Mental Health Center

Alabama teens not learning about self-protection and sex

It is no surprise that the teen pregnancy rate in Alabama rose in 2007 for the second consecutive year. In 2007, more than 12,000 Alabama teens became pregnant.
In Lee County alone, 268 teens became pregnant. Over $1.5 billion has been spent on abstinence-only education over the last decade, and studies show that abstinence-only education is not effective in reducing unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections. The statistics are clear.

Abstinence-only education provides our youth with one proven method of protecting themselves from unintended pregnancy. 

However, it does not provide youth with medically accurate information on contraceptives or condoms. As such, teens are not learning about all of the tools necessary to protect themselves once they become sexually active. Comprehensive sex education provides youth with age-appropriate, medically accurate information. According to a nationwide study by the University of Washington, students who received comprehensive sex education were less likely to become teen parents than those who received abstinence-only information or no sex education.

We can choose to ignore the statistics, or we can work towards a better future for our youth by providing them with the comprehensive sex education they need to help them protect themselves against unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS.

We can and should provide teens with the information they need to make responsible decisions. Teen pregnancy is not just a problem for our youth, but for the community at large.

The costs, both monetary and otherwise, are high. Become a part of the solution. Join Planned Parenthood in supporting comprehensive sex education.

Barbara Buchanan, MPH MBA
Chief Executive Officer
Planned Parenthood of Alabama