The newest war on drugs
When Anne's grandmother was hospitalized two years ago with chest pains, she couldn't remember what medications she was on. So doctors sent Anne to the woman's home in eastern Washington State to look in her cabinets. What they found shocked both the family and the doctors. In the basement, the woman had several copies of the Physician's Desk Reference, scales for weighing pills, and a cupboard chock-full of both prescription and over-the-counter medications. All in all, doctors told the family later, she had 11 types of prescription medications, including at least 400 Valium pills. Her medications, doctors said, would probably fetch about $15,000 on the street. "When I went down there," says Anne, "I thought, 'Oh my God, it looks like a pharmacy in here.' "
To get pills, Anne's grandmother would go from doctor to doctor complaining of anxiety, asking each for a prescription so that, unbeknownst to the doctors, she racked up a huge stockpile of drugs. The practice is known as "doctor shopping," and it's one of the most common ways that prescription pills are obtained illegally. Figuring out how to stop the practice, along with other strategies people use to obtain prescription drugs illegally, is a major challenge facing law enforcement, the medical profession, and government agencies.
Though use of illicit drugs has held relatively stable, prescription-drug abuse has risen dramatically in the past few years. Indeed, only the illegal use of marijuana is more prevalent today. Although abuse is rising among all age groups, officials are especially concerned about abuse among teenagers: One in 10 high school seniors has tried the painkiller Vicodin without a prescription, and 1 in 20 has taken the potent pill OxyContin.
Local, state, and some federal agencies have been combating this problem for decades. But the issue started getting widespread attention just last year, when the Bush administration released its first-ever plan targeting prescription-drug abuse. The White House set up new federal programs--including increased physician education and support for state prescription monitoring efforts that can catch people with multiple prescriptions for the same drug. In addition, two members of Congress introduced the Prescription Drug Abuse Elimination Act, some provisions of which passed as part of another bill. And outside the government, the Partnership for a Drug-Free America recently completed a study of adolescent attitudes on prescription drugs and will most likely release an ad campaign later this year warning of the dangers of popping pills. As these efforts gear up, experts at all levels are realizing that fighting the war on prescription drugs may be unlike anything they've done before.
"Kiddie dope." "We are faced here with a different kind of threat," says John Walters, the U.S. drug czar. "With most illegal drugs, such as cocaine, production and distribution are illegal activities. In this case, this is a diversion from a legitimate source."
In contrast to other types of illicit drugs, fighting this threat takes more finesse than force. Education is one of the main components--people are still unaware that prescription drugs can be just as dangerous as illegal drugs. There's an idea that because doctors recommend prescription drugs for some uses, they must be safe. The perception even extends to law enforcement, says John Burke, vice president of the National Association of Drug Diversion Investigators. Federal agents and others refer to prescription pills as "kiddie dope" and don't regard rounding up those who sell it illegally as a top priority, he says.
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