Marijuana Policy Project

Like wolves on prey they descended, rousting the suspects out of bed and into plastic handcuffs during the early hours of an otherwise typical Thursday morning. By the time the countywide drug raid was over, police had seized some 1,000 prescription pills ranging from common wisdom-tooth remedies Percocet and oxycodone, to the hardcore painkiller OxyContin (not to mention quantities of heroin and marijuana).

There was a certain degree of glory and honor conferred on the nearly 250 law-enforcement officers who participated in the sweep, which was dubbed "Operation Painkiller." The Morris County Prosecutor, whose office coordinated the two-month investigation and subsequent string of arrests, lauded them for "[saving] lives by dismantling a drug distribution network," giving them also the option to purchase commemorative "Operation Painkiller: Special Enforcement Unit" T-shirts depicting the Grim Reaper, sickle in hand, holding up a skull.

But the dozens of "criminals" these cops took off the streets weren't exactly the dangerous, drug-peddling thugs one might expect. Rather, they were middle class or affluent suburban kids fresh out of or still enrolled in high school or college. Among them were sports stars, employees of prominent local businesses and those harmless "boys and girls next door." According to published news reports, the adolescents - there were more than 50 in total, ranging in age from 16 to 25 - filed into the Morris County Firefighters and Police Academy on July 27 wearing flip flops, shorts, T-shirts, pajamas and other attire more likely to be seen in school hallways than a police station. Some of them cried, the reports said, as their parents looked on in disbelief.

With incidents like this one making their way into the public eye, a new face is being cast on adolescent substance abuse, one that suggests it now emerges not only from street corners and drug dens, but also household medicine cabinets and online pharmacies where painkillers and other prescription medicines can be easily obtained. Long-stereotyped as fix-me-ups for unfulfilled suburban housewives, or the designer drugs of choice for celebs, pain pills and anti-anxiety meds in recent years have become widely used among those in the twenties-and-under set.

"Robert," a North Jersey resident in his mid-20s spoke to Exit on condition of anonymity about his prescription drug abuse. He said a friend gave him his first painkiller at the age of 18. "I took it and it made me feel great," he recalled, adding it relieved the pain he had been experiencing from a back problem.

Robert took painkillers off and on until he was 20, and almost every day until the age of 25. He said he was high "pretty much 24 hours a day," and would often go nights without sleeping so as not to "waste" his high, which he described as a calming, euphoric sensation. He got his pills from doctors and the Internet.

"It had a horribly negative effect on my life. I ended up doing things I never thought I would do - stealing; lying; I lost friends," he said, adding he eventually entered rehab to get off pills.

Robert, noting he's seen various news stories about prescription drug abuse, said he first realized that pills had become popular with young people around 2003. But although the trend of prescription drug abuse, especially as it occurs in teens, has received sporadic media attention, many people - take for example those shocked by the Morris County drug bust - still don't know it exists, and some health experts and anti-drug activists say it's time to start raising awareness.

The Partnership for a Drug-Free America in May released the results of a national study that concluded today's teens - "Generation Rx" as the study refers to them - are more likely to abuse prescription drugs than illegal drugs. The 2005 study, which surveyed more than 7,300 teens in grades seven through 12 and carried a 1.5 percent margin of error, found that nearly one in five U.S. teens has taken prescription meds to get high, and that two in five teens agree pain meds are "much safer' than illegal drugs even when not prescribed by a doctor. At the same time, the study found that teen marijuana and Ecstasy use are in decline.

Other recently published studies, though not specific to youths, have also documented a rise in prescription drug abuse. The U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration in June reported that last year alone, 2.4 million people ages 12 and up started taking painkillers for non-medical use. Similarly, the Center for Disease Control several weeks ago published the results of a study that found painkiller-related deaths increased more than 91 percent between 1999 and 2002. It concluded painkillers have played a significant role in "a national epidemic of drug poisoning deaths" that began in the 1990s.

"The abuse of prescription and over-the-counter [OTC] drugs has taken root among America's teens and the behavior is not registering with parents," said Steve Pasierb, president and CEO of the Partnership. "We have a situation where a widespread and dangerous teen behavior has become normalized."

In response to these statistics, the Partnership recently launched its first ever National Rx and OTC Medicine Abuse Education Campaign, which targets teens and parents. But the response to the rise in Rx-abuse doesn't seem to be the same at the government level - at least not yet.

Though the Office of National Drug Control Policy, which did not return numerous calls seeking comment, has published some research on prescription drug abuse, its National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign focuses overwhelmingly on marijuana. Some of the campaign's ads and educational materials, as well as the campaign overview, approach drugs and drug prevention from a broad, all-encompassing perspective, but visit its Web site (mediacampaign.org) and you might get the feeling you're looking at one big anti-pot commercial. Eight of its 11 drug fact sheets are about marijuana (none are about prescription drugs), and in caps, "MARIJUANA" appears on the top left portion of the home page above links to a "Marijuana Awareness Kit" and some 20 anti-pot materials for kids and parents. That of course is in addition to the many television ads that suggest if you smoke pot you will shrivel up into a flat, lethargic doll, lose track of the kid you're baby sitting in the middle of a crowded carnival, or forget to show up for dinner with your lonely old grandma.

Bruce Mirken, director of communications for the Marijuana Policy Project, a Washington D.C. based policy reform organization, suspects that "government drug warriors" may have helped create the adolescent shift towards pharmaceuticals by placing excessive emphasis on the alleged dangers of marijuana, and devoting few resources to other, more harmful drugs.

"When you bombard kids with scare stories about marijuana and don't even mention prescription drugs, the message you're sending is that marijuana is really dangerous and you don't have to worry so much about other drugs," he said. "We certainly don't think kids should be smoking marijuana, but smoking marijuana is not going to kill them. Taking an overdose of a drug like OxyContin very well could."

While it seems like more young adults are popping pills than ever before, coloring prescription drug abuse as an adolescent problem and focusing outreach on teens and parents might not be the best prevention tactic.

Dr. Mario Finkelstein is a board certified psychiatrist and addiction specialist at Morristown Memorial Hospital. Though he said he now has many patients between the ages of 18 and 25 who are prescription drug abusers (he doesn't work with minors), he stressed that pharmaceutical abuse is prevalent among anyone and everyone. Lawyers, businessmen, suburban homemakers, even the elderly are among the pill-addicts he treats. He said he sees prescription drug abuse as a problem "reaching epidemic proportions," but cautions against characterizing it as a youth-oriented, recreational issue.

"This is not just a problem with the younger generation," he said. "It's a problem with every generation. It would be a mistake to just focus on kids."

But it's also difficult to make a case that anyone who now and again takes a prescription drug recreationally should be told he has a problem, let alone criminalized. After all, there are enough benign, even comical references to pill popping in popular culture, television and movies.

Robert, Exit's anonymous source, said he had other friends who used prescription drugs to get high, but that their use remained sporadic and they never got into any serious trouble because of it. Some people, he explained, are simply predisposed to addiction.

"I understand that everyone has a choice, and you don't ever have to take a drug in the first place, but it's something that most people will do at some point in their lives, and some people just get carried away," he said, questioning whether the hard-line tactic used in Morris County is the right approach to curtailing adolescent prescription drug abuse. "I think more attention should be paid to letting people know that not everyone is the same, and that some people will have problems with certain things. Kids need to know they can get help if they need it."