RSS 2.0 FeedThursday, January 19, 2012, Featured Articles, Bellmore Life
The dangers lurking in your medicine cabinet
Community Parent Center hosts program on drug abuse.
Steve Chassman
“There are two topics that America hasn’t dealt with well: drugs and sex,” said Steve Chassman, LCSW, of the Long Island Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence. It was a provocative statement he hoped would perk up some ears, open some eyes and perhaps save some lives.
Mr. Chassman spoke to about 50 people last week at Brookside School in a presentation titled, “The Dangers in Our Medicine Chests.” The program was inspired by a disturbing report from state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman that indicates an 82% increase in Oxycodone prescriptions from 2007 to 2010.
Mr. Chassman and Nassau County Police Detective Pam Stark were invited by the Community Parent Center; the newly formed Bellmore-Merrick Coalition against Substance Abuse; the Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District; the Bellmore, Merrick, North Bellmore and North Merrick elementary school districts and county Legislator Dave Denenberg.
Of course, prescription painkillers can greatly improve the quality of life for those who need them, but unfortunately many of these drugs are being illegally prescribed, or stolen and abused by teens and adult drug addicts, said Detective Stark.
Detective Pam Stark
Mr. Chassman and Detective Stark described cases where they or people they knew were prescribed many more pills than needed for their medical conditions. The superfluous pills are stored in the medicine chests of countless Long Islanders, resulting in an unintentional “side-effect”: Teens are finding a new and easily accessible way to get high.
“We’ve become a pharmaceutical nation,” said Mr. Chassman. “Twelve, 13 and 14 year olds are moving to the most powerful narcotics on the face of the planet.” In fact, according to him, prescription drugs are the drugs of choice among abusers, ages 12 and 13.
As Mr. Chassman explained, the brain’s normal surge in dopamine, derived from natural pleasures, is on overdrive when under the influence of oxycodone and similar drugs, often leading to rapid dependence, especially among young people.
The availability of prescription drugs pilfered from the medicine chest of a parent, family member or friend effectively cuts out a teen’s need for a drug dealer.
Mr. Chassman’s statement is supported by a 2007 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Both he and Detective Stark said two ways to help stem the problem of prescription drug abuse is to, first, lock the medicine chest, and then change the way adults talk about prescription drugs.
Changing the dialogue of drugs
“If you’re offered these drugs and you’re going to take them, you don’t need to offer this information to anyone else,” said Detective Stark. She said parents shouldn’t casually mention they are going to take an Ambien to get to sleep or a Xanax because they are feeling anxious.
Keep that information private, as such statements could alert others to the presence of such frequently abused drugs in your home, she said. And drugs should be locked away, not stored where they are easily available. “Do not keep drugs in the bathroom,” said Detective Stark. Not only your teens, but their friends and adults who you may not suspect of having a drug problem will have access to this area.
Cell phones and drugs
“Most drug deals happen via text,” said Mr. Chassman. He said many parents want to respect their children’s privacy, but as long as parents pay the cell phone bills, teens should know their parents are entitled to read their text messages.
Detective Stark has children now in their 20s who echoed that statement. She said reading their texts made her uncomfortable, but she did read them. She said she was discrete and did not comment on the messages, but made certain there was no illegal activity occurring.
Drug use and progression
Mr. Chassman described the progression of drug abuse in five stages: experimental use, recreational use, misuse, abuse and dependence. He included alcohol in the program with a description of binge drinking.
“The mentality of binge drinking is ‘tonight I want to go out absolutely annihilated. Tonight I want to go out and get wasted.’ ” He said it was important to include alcohol in the lethal mix, because “Alcohol kills more adolescents than all other drugs combined.”
Statistics recently released by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention support Mr. Chassman’s warning. According to the CDC, more than 38 million adults binge on alcohol at least four times per month.
Binge drinking is defined as consuming four or more drinks for women and five or more drinks for men on one occasion. According to the CDC, some college-age drinkers report consuming as many as nine drinks during an episode.
On the subject of heroin abuse, both Mr. Chassman and Detective Stark said the drug is now cheap and powerful, so while some potential addicts may have drawn the line at using needles to inject heroin, it now can be smoked.
They said many teens get their first taste of the highly addictive drug accidentally, believing they are smoking a type of marijuana called hash or hashish. “This was an inner-city problem,” said Det. Stark, “but it’s not just an inner-city problem anymore.”
As for arresting drug users, the detective said, “We look really good when arrests are down. We don’t want arrests and we can’t arrest our way out of this.”
Causes
“Drugs, at first, are a short-term solution to other problems,” masking a lack of coping skills, said Mr. Chassman. Curiosity, peer pressure, anxiety, social acceptance, depression, escape and to lower inhibitions are typical reasons for drug use among teens, he said.
