Monday, September 26, 2011

Prescription drug abuse out of control

From Metro:

There’s a battlefront in New York City’s war on drugs, and it doesn’t involve crack cocaine or heroin.

Prescription painkiller abuse is now one of the top concerns for law enforcement officials and doctors.

New York City has seen an 80 percent increase from 2007 to 2010 in admissions to crisis drug treatment programs for those addicted to pills like Vicodin, OxyContin and Percocet, according to state health officials.

“It’s a fast-growing problem in northern Manhattan as it is across New York City,” said the city’s Special Narcotics Prosecutor, Bridget Brennan, at a meeting last week with White House drug czar Gil Kerlikowske to discuss the burgeoning epidemic.

Painkiller addiction poses a unique challenge because of the medical infrastructure. “These drugs are prescribed by doctors and obtained through legitimate pharmacies,” Brennan said.

Young adults and teens are particularly at risk for pill addiction, warns Dr. Deni Carise, chief clinical officer at the Phoenix House rehab center, because of the availability of drugs in their homes and the existence of “pill parties.” “Everyone grabs pills from medicine cabinets, puts them in a bowl, takes a handful and sees what happens,” said Carise.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Arrest some of the pusher, untouchable doctors and put them away for a few years and maybe this will slow down!

Anonymous said...

Young adults and teens are particularly at risk for pill addiction, warns Dr. Deni Carise, chief clinical officer at the Phoenix House rehab center, because of the availability of drugs in their homes and the existence of “pill parties.” “Everyone grabs pills from medicine cabinets, puts them in a bowl, takes a handful and sees what happens,” said Carise.

Are you kidding? That sounds like one of those urban legends like "lipstick parties". I remember when I was a kid the SAME BS myth was called "Pill roulette". Kids would allegedly put uppers and downers in a bag and pass it around "the school bus" and take one and swallow it, then not know if it was an upper or downer. Does this make sense? Remember when smoking angel dust gave you the ability to bend steel bars and snap handcuffs?

Anonymous said...

Might as well make dope legal. Because that's essentially what this is. Legal dope.

drug hater said...

people are so friggin' stupid.