Survey: Prescription Drug Abuse Up

In the last year, as many as 25 percent of students on some college campuses have used prescription drugs for recreational use, according to a survey conducted by Martha J. Farah, director at the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania.

“I think [abuse of prescription drugs] is a problem that’s increasing,” said Jan Scaglione, senior certified specialist in poison information at the Cincinnati Drug and Poison Information Center. “I hold a focus group every six months and one thing that continues to increase is the number of people using prescription drugs. It’s not going to go away any time soon.”

Although the survey, published in Nature, a weekly science journal, suggests stimulants are being used mostly as an academic aid  University of Cincinnati students suggest otherwise.

The students interviewed for this article asked to remain anonymous because buying, selling and trading pills is a felony.

“I smoked a lot of pot in high school and that kind of led to trying other drugs,” said a third-year psychology student. “A girl at school had a lot of Percocet; I always heard how relaxing they are, how they make you numb … I started off kind of slowly but it got to the point of what I was taking wasn’t [messing] me up anymore. I was taking so many that one day in school I actually fell out of my chair and passed out. I was up to taking, like, six pills every day.”

A survey referenced on the Commission on Alcohol and Other Drug Education’s Web site found that 58 percent of UC students never used marijuana and 91 percent have never used amphetamines – diet pills, speed, meth, crack.

“It’s harder for people to get marijuana or cocaine because of the big drug busts they’re doing,” the psychology student said. “It’s pretty hard to get pot but it’s so easy to get, like, pills.”

Although there has not been conclusive research or studies done on how students traffic drugs, Scaglione and UC students suggest the Internet may be a source of moving pills.

“I got a random Facebook message from someone I haven’t talked to in two years asking if I wanted painkillers of Valium the other day,” the psychology student said. “I could make a phone call right now and get [more than] 200 Percocet, more than 50 Adderall.”

A chemical technology student says drugs are “as available as crazy friends are.”

“When you’re talking about talking to other people, they’re pretty out there,” Scaglione said. “If you’re seeking something, you would pretty much ask anybody if they’re selling it. It’s not like it’s this big dark secret world in the underground. A lot of times there are people who get these things and they advertise by word of mouth.”

Students buy, sell and trade pills to others students on a per-pill basis. Some pills sell for $1 per milligram– like Oxycotin – while some, like Suboxone, can be bought for $15, according to the third-year chemical technology student who has bought pills and sold Adderall
and Rittalin.

“If you have a prescription, more than likely you didn’t pay full price for it because you have co-pay,” Scaglione said. “If they get a 60- or 90-count bottle, you can make a decent buck [selling pills.]”

*The print edition of this article states that Oxycotin is generally sold for $1 per pill. The correct information is reflected in the online version: Oxycotin might be sold for $1 per milligram. The pill is usually approximately 20mg.