Teen Abuse Of Painkillers Remains Popular

Study Says Teen Abuse Of Painkillers Remains Popular Teens continue to abuse prescription painkillers like OxyContin and Vicodin, even though their overall drug usage continues to decline. Those are the conclusions of a new national study due out later today. According to "USA Today," the report by the University of Michigans Institute for Social Research found that the highly addictive narcotic painkillers that imitate morphine are still as popular as ever among the nearly 50-thousand teens surveyed. The poll, funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, found that painkiller abuse is second only to marijuana use among teens. Eighth-graders showed the sharpest overall decline in reporting past-year drug use, dropping from just under 15-percent in 2006 to 13-point-two-percent this year. However, the number of teens who reported using OxyContin in the past year has jumped by 30-percent since 2002, when survey researchers first asked about the drug. Marijuana is still the most widely used drug among teens. One in ten eighth-graders, one in four 10th-graders and nearly one in three 12th-graders say they smoked marijuana this past year. Use among eighth-graders declined slightly, while use in other grades remained steady. (Copyright 2007 by Newsroom Solutions) RNS-12-11-07 0506CST