Abuse of any substance is detrimental to anyone’s health. Abusing drugs whether they are prescribed or over the counter, as well as using illicit and toxic drugs have adverse and extremely undesirable consequences. Over the years, there have been fluctuating trends. Prescription drug abuse statistics indicate that there were upward trends and there were years when there was a decrease in the abuse of prescription drugs.
Important Teen Prescription Abuse Statistics
1. Teenagers are likely to use or abuse illicit drugs more than pharmaceutical drugs or prescription drugs. Marijuana tops the list of using drugs. But prescription drugs or pharmaceutical drugs feature prominently on the list of top ten drugs abused by teenagers. The most widely abused prescription drugs are Adderall, Vicodin, Cough Medicine, Tranquilizers, Sedatives, OxyContin and Ritalin.
2 The aforementioned findings were inferred by a Monitoring The Future study generated in conjunction with the University of Michigan in 2013. The same study revealed that most teenagers were likely to abuse drugs meant for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, pain relievers and cough medications. For most teenagers, it is no secret that cough medicines induce a sense of intoxication, many pain relievers actually induce sleep and many medicines meant for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder can give them a high. There is a perception among some health experts that students or teenagers often mistakenly abuse prescription drugs but there is enough evidence to suggest that mistakes are far less common than the widespread practice of intended abuse. Teenagers consciously abuse prescription drugs for the purpose of some sense of intoxication which is a side effect when there is actually no underlying health ailment to be remedied by the drug.
3. In the United States, teenagers start to abuse prescription drugs at as early an age as twelve and most students have some experience or exposure to abuse by the time they turn seventeen. It is estimated that about 2,500 teenagers, aged twelve to seventeen, abuse prescribed pain relievers every day. That only takes into account first time abusers. Repeat abusers or offenders will exponentially increase that count.
4. Prescription drug abuse is common all over the world but it is very common in the United States. It is estimated that more people abuse prescription drugs than the number of people using illicit drugs such as heroin, cocaine and hallucinogens. A study conducted in 2006 had revealed that more than 2.6 million people had abused one or more prescription drugs and that too for the first time.
5. Drug overdose is a major cause of death among Americans and prescription drugs account for more than 25,000 deaths. Opioid painkillers are the most widely abused drugs. Among all deaths caused by overdose of prescription drugs, opioid accounts for the most with 38.2% of all such deaths.
6. In a shocking study in 2005, more than 4.4 million teenagers agreed to have abused some kind of prescription drug. Painkillers were the most common while Ritalin and similar drugs were abused by more than 2.3 million teenagers. A staggering 2.2 million reported to have abused some kind of cough syrup, but many were purchased over the counter. Typically, the first time a teenager abused a prescription drug is not beyond the age of thirteen to fourteen.
7. Among drug overdose deaths, including all kinds of legal and illegal drugs, prescription drugs account for 45%. If that statistic is shocking enough, it will be more shocking when one considers that use of illicit or street drugs account for 39% of those deaths and street drugs included the likes of amphetamine, heroin, methamphetamine and cocaine.
8. Until a decade or so back, teenage prescription drug abuse statistics highlighted that inner cities and African American neighborhoods has the most cases. But today, white rural neighborhoods report just as many cases. In other words, teenage prescription drug abuse has become a widespread phenomenon that cannot be confined to any zone or demography. There are some positive trends in recent teenage prescription drug abuse statistics but they are not sufficient to be optimistic or encouraged.
9. Every year, more than 1.5 million emergency room admissions are reported due to drug abuse. Out of those, more than a third are due to abuse of prescription drugs.
10. The most alarming reality that emerges from teenage prescription drug abuse statistics is a certain mindset and approach of teenagers towards the whole act of abusing the drugs. First, teenagers feel safe with prescription drug abuses. They consider the illicit drugs or street drugs to be relatively unsafe. They have a penchant to try them out but they control their urge and instead satiate that with prescription drugs. 50% of all teens believe that using prescription drugs is safer and better than illicit drugs sold on the street. Astonishingly, more than 70% of teenagers get their prescription drugs from the medicine cabinets at their home. They don’t have to source it from any doctor or from some dubious sources. They can find it right at their home and take the prescription drugs without even any knowledge about its purpose and potential side effects. Naturally, the reason why teenagers are taking those drugs are for their aftereffects and not for any medicinal purpose at all. That approach leads to many possibilities in the near future. A study was published by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University that sheds light on how those who are accustomed with abuse of prescription drugs are prone to using illicit drugs in the future. The report suggests that teenagers abusing prescription drugs will be more than twice as likely to indulge in alcohol, sooner than later, they will be more than five times likely to indulge in marijuana and there is an exponentially greater possibility of them trying out some illicit drugs, which could be heroin, cocaine or ecstasy. Those who don’t abuse prescription drugs are the least likely to indulge in any drugs, pharmaceutical or illicit street ones.
11. There was a specific case study in 2007 where the Drug Enforcement Administration found out that more than 1,000 people had died in the United States, that very year, due to the abuse of Fentanyl, a painkiller. The drug is fifty times more potent than the illicit drug heroin. The DEA could not figure out how many people had taken that drug which lead to the death of a thousand people but the casualty is enough for teenagers to be conscious of all painkillers or pain relievers.
Where Abuse Attacks
Teenagers are not the only ones who abuse prescription drugs. Adults or even a section of the elderly are equally prone to prescription drug abuse. However, teenagers are vulnerable particularly because of two reasons. First, teenagers presume that prescription drugs are safe at any time and thus they do not adhere to stringent courses or routines which lead to abuse. Second, teenagers often fail to realize the adverse effects of combining multiple drugs and trying to derive some kind of pleasure from them other than the intended effect.
Abuse of prescription drugs and over the counter medications is significantly higher among high school students and adolescents. Although those in eighth standard and below are less prone to abuse such drugs, they are still vulnerable to such exposure and trials.
Effects and Impact of Prescription Drug Abuse
The teenage prescription drug abuse statistics are discomforting but there are more truths than the facts revealed through the aforementioned stats and trends. Deaths or reported cases of prescription drug abuse is only a small portion of what actually happens on the ground. Emergency cases get reported when there are official entries. When drug related emergencies are not taken care of by professionals, they don’t get reported. Hence, there is no way of knowing the exact extent to which drug abuse is prevalent in the society today.
When there are some obvious impacts or effects of drug abuse, the situations get reported and accounted for. Deaths are a possibility which are not always the eventuality. There are many other implications of teenage prescription drug abuse. An increased proclivity to try out illicit drugs, marijuana and alcohol is certainly an implication but so are crimes, psychological problems and a plethora of other health problems. Teenagers are likely to develop health problems of myriad kinds, from respiratory infections to cardiovascular problems, owing to prescription drug abuse. The nature and extent of abuse will determine how quickly or belatedly the health problems would become apparent. Crimes under the influence of drugs are also extremely common, especially among teenagers. Elderly people or adults who abuse prescription drugs are less likely to commit a crime. Teenagers don’t fully understand the drug or its abuse and thus they do not realize the ways to control the fallouts or the side effects. There are reported cases of crimes committed by young teenagers. Inflicting harm on oneself is also a side effect of prescription drug abuse among teenagers.
Many parents perceive that the access to internet and the abundance of online stores selling pharmaceutical drugs are the primary cause of teenage prescription drug abuse but that is not the case. Kids, especially teenagers, are less likely to place any order online. They are more likely to get the drugs from a friend or relative. Many source them from medicine cabinets at their home and some kids use the prescriptions of doctors whom they know, more so if there is one in the family, which could be one or both the parents or someone else.
Parental intervention is the best way to avert teenage prescription drug abuse.