Authorities in the Washington, D.C. area are ramping up prevention efforts to fight the prescription drug epidemic among teenagers in the community.
"It's different from other
drug abuse trends because you have young people getting pills for free from the homes of family members and friends," said former White House drug czar John Walters. "Barriers like finding strangers, paying money and having to go someplace strange are not there."
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about one in five high school students have admitted to abusing
prescription drugs. In Arlington, Virginia, a wealthy suburb of Washington, D.C., about 10 percent of students in the eighth, tenth and twelfth grade have admitted to abusing prescription medications like Oxycontin and Vicodin.
Between 2007 and 2010, the state of Maryland had a startling 106 percent increase in people getting treatment for addiction to prescription painkillers. Last year, 60 percent of people in Maryland seeking treatment for addiction were younger than 30 years old.
In Montgomery County, Maryland and Fairfax County in Virginia, police have actively been targeting teenagers at school and in the community, hoping to spread the message of the dangers of prescription drugs.
"I think we're on the right track with getting out and talking to the parents and teachers," said Fairfax Captain David Russell. "We can't go out and patrol all the medicine cabinets in Fairfax."
