Letter toThe New York Times

To the Editor:

Abuse of prescription and over-the-counter medications represents the single most significant change in substance abuse trends in recent memory. In addition to the 20- and 30-year-olds you report about, consider the scope of this emerging public health crisis among teenagers.

As our national tracking studies have shown, one in six teenagers has used a prescription pain medication to get high. One in 10 reports abusing prescription stimulants and tranquilizers, and 1 in 11 has abused cough medication. The data show that teenagers are now more likely to have abused a prescription painkiller than they are to have experimented with a variety of illicit drugs, including Ecstasy, cocaine and LSD.

The challenge we face is enormous: persuading the young and assured and the very young and curious that abusing medications can be lethal and addictive.

Steve Pasierb
Pres. & Chief Exec., Partnership
for a Drug-Free America
New York, Nov. 16, 2005