Dangers for teens lurk in medicine cabinets

By Yinka Adegoke

NEW YORK (Reuters) - When she saw the empty medicine bottle on the front seat of her son's car, Misty Fetko knew something was wrong.

Carl Hennon died at age 18 after taking an overdose of cough syrup in 2003 and his mother has been telling his story ever since.

A registered nurse from New Albany, Ohio, Fetko will testify before Congress on Thursday as part of a series of briefings she hopes will put the issue of over-the-counter and prescription drug abuse higher on the agenda.

"By the time I got up to his bedroom he was already gone. I tried waking him, then my nurse training took over, but it was too late," she said in an interview.

According to the most comprehensive study on U.S. teenage drug abuse, the intentional abuse of legal medicines continues to be a "pernicious problem".

"Overall prescription drug abuse has become a more important part of the nation's drug problem," said Dr. Lloyd Johnston, who runs the ongoing University of Michigan study.

Last December, the survey found that 9 percent of 16- to 18-year-olds intentionally abused prescription narcotics such as Vicodin in 2006.

"The use of Oxycontin has doubled among 8th graders (12- to 14-year-olds) since 2002," Johnston said.

Other common household drugs popularly misused included dextromethorphan, found in cough syrups.

The Partnership for a Drug-Free America, a not-for-profit lobby group sponsoring the briefings, said parents are part of the problem.

"The problem in general is the parents' attitudes (were) as bad as the kids on this subject," said Steve Pasierb, chief executive of the Partnership.

"The parents think they know all about drugs so they say, 'At least it's not heroin'," he added.

"Kids like it because it's hot and it's new, they believe it's safe and there's relative ease of access."

And taking tablets from home medicine cabinets is cheaper than buying drugs from street drug dealers.

Linda Surks, a public information coordinator for the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence from Middlesex County, New Jersey, said her 19-year old son Jason died four years ago after an overdose of Vicodin, Xanax and Oxycontin.