 |
 |
Concerned with a rise in theft and abuse of parents' prescription drugs by their children, a Shelby County agency is working to warn adults to keep their medications under lock and key.
The Shelby County Drug Free Coalition has enlisted 10 pharmacies to distribute 30,000 tip sheets by attaching them to customer medication bags, providing information about how to safeguard drugs from youngsters and teens.
The coalition is part of Family Connection, which provides assistance for youths and families.
The five steps are simple and mostly common sense, said Carol Williams, Family Connection project coordinator. They include:
Get rid of old or unused drugs.
Count your pills.
Secure medications in a safe place.
Talk with your child.
Ask friends and family to safeguard their prescriptions.
Williams, who is including the warning tips in talks she gives to civic and church groups, said it's important to educate the public about the issue.
"We want to get adults to realize this problem exists and involve them in stopping the trend of kids popping or providing to peers pills and other drugs they find at home," Williams said.
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration did a 2007 national survey of 29,000 young people age 12 to 19, Williams said.
Of teenagers who abused stimulant and anti-anxiety prescription drugs, 64 percent bought or stole them from friends and relatives, she said.
That increases to 70 percent for those abusing prescription pain relievers, including Vicodin, OxyContin and Demerol, she said.
Although these are national figures, from what we hear during school presentations and working with young people, we know this is a problem in our own community, Williams said.
Emily Bashinsky is clinical case manager for Shelby County Juvenile Drug Court, which works with teens age 14 to 17 who are nonviolent and, as a result of drug or alcohol use, have committed delinquent acts or violated probation.
Bashinsky said the program assisted 35 juveniles and their families in 2007, 50 in 2008, and she expects the figure to be higher this year.
The program currently has 24 participants, many of whom have reported past use of prescription drugs, she said.
Bashinsky said youths caught possessing, distributing or consuming prescription drugs that are not theirs are charged, taken into custody, assessed for substance abuse at the juvenile detention center and taken before a judge.
All kids charged attend outpatient substance abuse therapy and if that is unsuccessful, are entered into a rehab facility, she said.
If it is a first-time offense, the juvenile goes through a deferred prosecution where they are drug-tested and monitored for six months, Bashinsky said.
Should the young person fail to complete that phase of the process successfully, he goes back to court and is placed on probation, she said.
If probation is violated, the youth enters the Shelby County Drug Court Program, a nine-month process.
This is an intense form of probation with drug screening and abuse classes two to three times each week and a weekly court review, Bashinsky said. This program is generally the last resort before a juvenile is committed to the Department of Youth Services.
Zina Cartwell is a drug prevention coordinator with the Chilton-Shelby Mental Health Center, and agrees the use of prescription drugs by teens is on the rise in Shelby and Chilton counties.
Cartwell, who has conducted substance abuse therapy groups and also teaches drug prevention classes in area high schools, said kids are often very candid about their drug use.
I've had students tell me they can go upstairs right now, in the school, and get pills, Cartwell said. They are finding it easy to get drugs from other students and they use them at school because there is no smell and they're not detected.
Cartwell said children's drug abuse is often facilitated by parents doing the same, Cartwell said.
A parent may be taking Lortab and doesn't realize pills are missing because he or she is abusing," she said. "And you also have many parents with the attitude of `not my child,' that their children would never do such a thing."
Cartwell said parents should not assume anything.
"It's important parents become educated, think to count their pills," she said. "If your child is not taking the drugs himself, he well could be selling them or giving them away."
The Birmingham News, Marienne Thomas-Ogle