Teen “pharming parties” get their supplies from mom’s medicine cabinet — not online
As you know, we are the first to write about the dangers of no-prescription pharmacies on this blog, and the first to tell you that most online pharmacies are unlicensed and potentially unsafe — so you have to be careful. That’s why we created this site.
But the reality is, the vast majority of prescription drug abuse in this country is not facilitated through online pharmacies. Despite all the media hype (fueled by Big Pharma PR firms) linking teen prescription drug abuse to online pharmacies, the data clearly shows that teen abusers in most cases are taking these medications directly from their parents’ medicine cabinets.
As the Los Angeles Times has reported:
Among teens and young adults 12 to 25, one-third of those who use illicit drugs say they recently have abused prescription drugs — including painkillers, tranquilizers and stimulants …
More than half who reported they had recently taken prescription drugs for nonmedical uses said they got the drugs from a friend or relative for free, and almost 20% got them from a physician. About 1 in 10 who took prescription pain relievers said they bought or stole them from a friend or relative…
Fewer than 5% told interviewers that they had had to resort to a drug-dealing stranger to acquire prescription drugs, or even to log onto an Internet site selling prescription drugs.
Did you catch that? That’s less than 5 percent of teens who are buying drugs online — way less.
The Green Bay, Wisconsin, paper confirms that the biggest cause of teen prescription drug abuse is lack of parental supervision:
TweetLocal law enforcement, education and medical officials are increasingly worried about the prescription drug abuse trend — called “pharming” — among young teens. Teens in middle school are stealing, distributing and consuming prescription drugs with alcohol, authorities say…
At some pharming parties, kids will bring whatever pills they can get their hands on — painkillers, anti-anxieties, sedatives, tranquilizers — and mix them into a drug cocktail with alcohol… Kids in middle school were sticking pills in their pens and selling the pens for $5 each, said Anne Tobias-Becker, social worker and coordinator for the district…
The prevention strategy for the future aims at the source of the drugs, which tends to be the freely accessible medicine cabinets of friends and family. “The message to take home is people need to lock up their drugs,” [Dr. Jane] Whitman said. “You lock up your guns, you should lock up the pills.”
