The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University (CASA), last week issued a fascinating survey of teens. Two results stood out to me:
1. Teens (aged 12 to 17) indicated, for the first time, that it is easier to acquire “prescription drugs such as OxyContin, Percocet, Vicodin or Ritalin, without a prescription” [...]

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The Indianapolis Star has a valuable article providing tips to parents who are worried about their teenage children abusing prescription drugs. The article’s four tips:
1. Monitor the prescriptions you have in your home.
2. Secure your medicines.
3. Dispose of old prescriptions.
4. Communicate and set a good example for your child.
It’s nice to see a reasonable [...]

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The Florida Times-Union, the newspaper of Jacksonville, FL, published an editorial today headlined, “Internet Pharmacies: A prescription for death.”
We’re not crazy about that headline, as you might imagine. We’ve worked very hard to get the news media to distinguish legitimate, licensed Internet pharmacies from dangerous, rogue pharmacies in their coverage. But you know [...]

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With all the talk of the dangers of online pharmacies in the media these days, it’s important to remind ourselves that when people are determined to do the wrong thing, they’ll do it with or without the Internet’s help.
I came across a great example of this in the news the other day, where in Prichard, [...]

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Obviously, a lot has been said and written linking Internet pharmacies to prescription drug abuse. But prescription drug abuse occurs every day without the Internet being involved at all. In most cases, in fact, abusers are prescribed their meds by a doctor and pick them up at the corner pharmacy.
How does this happen? [...]

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Check out this video that some high school kids put together for their health class, warning teens of the dangers of abusing prescription drugs. Pretty decent production values. When I was in school, we were still watching filmstrips and being given smelly copies from the mimeograph machine.

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Yeah, I know; I’ve written about this topic before — more than a few times. But I feel compelled to do so again. Frankly, I’m mad as heck and I can’t take it any more.
Just as there have been past hysterias blaming the Internet for sexual predators, pornography, political polarization, celebrity obsession, obesity [...]

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Forbes recently published a worthwhile commentary on the epidemic in prescription drug abuse among teenagers, and the role that rogue pharmacies play in this phenomenon. Check it out.
Also, read our tips for avoiding rogue pharmacies.

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The big news this week is that super-celebs like Paris, Lindsay and Britney are all rumored to be using Adderall, the ADHD drug, for weight loss. Since these celebrities are among the stars most admired by teenage girls, I can only assume that this revelation will influence more young people to abuse this drug.
The [...]

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Here’s a nice video from Employment Crossing with tips on buying prescription drugs online. The one caveat we would add is that the FDA should not be your be-all-and-end-all in determining how, where and what to purchase online. It’s one data point to consider, but as we’ve shown time and again, it is [...]

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