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A Prescription For Fighting Drug Abuse

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 5, 2007

The good news in the war on drugs: The United States is making progress in beating back the availability of drugs like cocaine and methamphetamines.

The bad news: The emerging drugs of choice come straight out of the family medicine cabinet.
Prescription drugs are becoming the new gateway drugs for a new generation of addicts, U.S. "drug czar" John P. Walters said in a visit to Tampa on Tuesday. While overall drug use is on the decline, the abuse of prescription drugs is up some 300 percent over the last decade, the Office of National Drug Control Policy reports.

Florida has made progress. It was once a fountain for the drug hydrocodone - better known by its brand name Vicodin - with just five Florida Internet pharmacies doling out an average of 3.6 million pills a month in 2006 when the national average was 7,500 pills. Drug enforcement efforts targeted those operations and now the state is below the national average.

It's not surprising experimenting teens and addicts would turn to powerful prescription drugs, particularly painkillers and tranquilizers. They are accessible and comparably cheap.

But they are addictive nonetheless and damage lives just as surely as street drugs.

Adults must take responsibility for their own prescriptions - 60 percent of prescription drug abusers get their supply from a friend or relative for free.

Throw out any unused prescriptions that you no longer need so a teenager on the prowl through the medicine cabinet isn't tempted to take them.

And don't abuse your prescriptions yourself. Recognize that these drugs are powerful, dangerous compounds only intended to treat disease, not take the edge off a bad day.

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