Only three weeks ago a 17-year-old girl in Asbury Park, New Jersey was arrested and charged with dealing prescription painkillers Oxycontin and Percocet to high school classmates. A month earlier in Minneapolis, a teen boy overdosed on Oxycontin and died. He wasn’t trying to get high – he just had a headache and popped a few pills off a friend’s kitchen table.

These incidents highlight a growing crisis in America – the mis-use and abuse of prescription and over the counter drugs by teens – including pain relievers, anti-depressants, stimulants and steroids.

Let’s face it. We’ve become way too cavalier as a society about prescription drugs. We watched in humor and horror on “Desperate Housewives” when Lynette morphed into a pill-popping super-mom filching Ritalin. Our teens are inheriting our casual (and very dangerous) attitudes about self-medication and dabbling with powerful medications never prescribed to us by a physician.

According to a new study out of Columbia University, teen abuse of opioids, depressants and stimulants has more than tripled in the last decade. And grown-ups aren’t doing much better – the number of adults abusing prescription drugs climbed 81% in the same time period.

How bad is it? A study released by the Partnership for a Drug Free America last month showed one in five teens reported abusing Vicodin. One in ten were abusing Oxycontin. One in ten tried prescription stimulants like Ritalin. One in eleven have deliberately abused over the counter cough medicines to get high.

Why are teens turning to these drugs to relieve stress or get high? Although marijuana, tobacco, ecstasy and alcohol use are all on the decline among teens, prescription drugs may look like a “safer” high than more hard-core drugs. One-third of teens think that prescriptions meds aren’t addictive. Teens told researchers part of the reason is that they have easy access to these medications at home and the drugs are also available online.

Major stories in the news media, and even on MTV, have highlighted the teen prescription drug abuse crisis. You would think the publicity would have families abuzz with dialogue about the serious risks of mis-using medication. But they’re not talking – not nearly enough.

Discussing drug use is barely on the radar screen of the American family. A new study released by the Partnership for a Drug America found that only 37% of fathers and 45% of mothers have talked to their kids about drugs extensively in the past year. One-third of kids said their parents have talked to them about drugs in the last year. 

Surely we can do better. Talking to our teens about prescription drug abuse should be a priority for every family. Research from the Partnership for a Drug Free America shows that kids who learn about the risks of using drugs from their family are half as likely to use drugs as kids who don’t. Those one-on-one talks are critical to prevention.

The Partnership for Drug Free America has information online to help families talk with their teens about prescription drug abuse. Do it today.

Dawn Miller writes a column on life in blended families at thestepfamilylife.com. 
Visit Dawn's blog for a daily dose of life in the blender.
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