THE PROBLEM

     Results from the Western Michigan University Alcohol and Other Drugs Survey conducted in April 2007 found 15.1 percent of Midland County high school seniors have used illicit drugs other than marijuana to get high, compared to 10.8 percent nationally. But in this case, "illicit drugs" aren't limited to street drugs; they include using prescription and over-the-counter drugs in ways other than they are prescribed. Prescription drugs have grown in popularity because young people believe the medications are safer than street drugs and because they see the medications as "legal" and don't think they will be held accountable if caught with them.

According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 70 percent of the prescription drugs that teens use come from friends and relatives. Nationally, 2,500 kids ages 12 to 17 try a painkiller for the first time each day.

     The results of a new national study, released last month by the Office of National Drug Control Policy, show the nonmedical use of prescription drugs among young adults ages 18 to 25 rose 12 percent, up from 4.1 percent in 2002 to 4.6 percent in 2007.

     Both Midland County Sheriff Jerry Nielsen and Midland Police Acting Chief Bob Lane said their departments don't have a way to tally reports involving prescription drugs since they are lumped into a generalized category including all drugs. They say prescriptions lead to a host of incidents from overdoses and deaths to thefts and false reports.

     Midland County Circuit Judge Jonathan E. Lauderbach estimates that at least one third to as many as half of the crimes that come through the circuit court are related to prescription drugs, including breaking and enterings, thefts of family heirlooms, check forging, thefts from parents and grandparents, and workplace embezzlement, all for money to buy pills.

The top three pills he sees in cases are Oxycontin, Vicodin and Lortab, more than marijuana, heroin or other street drugs.

     "There's a lot more prescription drugs in our community than we're aware," he said.

In the two years since becoming a judge, Lauderbach said three of his probationers have died of drug overdoses, including a girl who carried a 3.6 GPA at Dow High and a 3.8 GPA at Delta before getting involved with opiates.

     "That's the kind of thing you don't forget," he said.

     Statistics released in Midland County Prosecutor Mike Carpenter's 2007 annual report show 96 percent of all teens and 94 percent of all adults convicted of felonies in Midland County self-reported substance abuse in presentence interviews with parole agents. Of those, 22 percent in each age division stated they had abused prescription drugs.

     Since October of 2006, medical examiner reports filed at the Midland County Sheriff's Office show 14 drug overdose deaths. The total is more than that, since reports from deaths that occurred after July have not yet been received back, and at least one man, Chad Glesner, is reported to have died of an overdose since that time.

     "There's a lot of people getting hooked up on prescriptions like Oxycontin, Vicodin and Percoset," Lane said. "They're just as addictive as anything ... or more."

     Lane said from talking with investigators, he's gleaned that more adults -- people in their 20s and 30s -- misuse prescription drugs than teens. He said people sell the pills they have, then call the police to report them as stolen so they can get more to sell. When they run out, they turn to street drugs like opium.

     AWARENESS

     The Circle of Health Partnership has focused efforts on combating the growing problem. Executive Director Gaye Terwillegar said the group is working to increase awareness about the misuse of prescription medications.

     "It's a big concern for us," Terwillegar said, adding the partnership is working on community-based activities including placing fliers at pharmacies so they can be stapled to bags at cash registers, making public service announcements and developing a presentation for school teachers, counselors and administrators.

     She said they also will talk with doctors and dentists to urge them to write prescriptions for the minimum number of pills necessary. That would help cut down on the number of unused pills, she said. "The whole thing is it's not there in the medicine cabinet for kids to abuse."

     Parents should keep in mind prescription drugs can come not only from their own medicine cabinets, but also could be provided to their children by their children's friends. Terwillegar said parents should keep track of what's in their medicine cabinets and talk among themselves to identify problems.

     Terwillegar also said grandparents need to pay attention, too, and discard of medications they're not using.

     "Please monitor these drugs in your home," she said, adding that law enforcement and emergency room doctors are seeing less underage drinking and more prescription drug misuse, or a combination of the two.

     Prescription medications are safe when taken as directed, but the medications can be dangerous when taken in excessive doses or used in combination with other substances to get high. Abusing prescription medications can cause addiction, strokes, seizures, organ damage, difficulty breathing, coma or death.

     Alan Mead, a Saginaw dentist, said officials have used a system to track prescriptions since the 1990s. The system now is called the Michigan Automated Prescription System, MAPS for short, which doctors and pharmacists register to use. The system collects information on people and their prescriptions for controlled substances. Medical professionals who are registered to use the system can look up a patient's history to see if they might be having a problem with prescription meds.

     For example, if a person shows up at an emergency room saying they are in pain and the doctor suspects they might be fishing for drugs, they could use the system to look up the person's past prescriptions while that person is still in the ER. Mead said MAPS could be invaluable in some cases, but not helpful in others.