Young Adults Battle a Harsh Addiction: What Can Be Done?

Young Adults Battle a Harsh Addiction
What Can Be Done?

By Chris LaRose

Generation Facebook, Generation Next, Millennials, the current group of teens from the originally named Generation Y have been nicknamed many things. Such a technologically and celebrity ruled demographic, you would expect the biggest problem for these young adults is their inability to pry themselves away from their BlackBerry’s and computer screens. But nothing is as disturbing as the recent realization by government officials, doctors, teachers and parents – perhaps their categorization should be Generation rX.

“It’s becoming an epidemic,” said Kathryn Hahn, a pain management specialist and pharmacist in Oregon. “Parents are asking ‘should we be concerned about this?’ and my answer is always, ‘we already should be.’” The fact of the matter is that Generation Y is struggling less with the abuse of drugs like cocaine and meth than it is with many of prescription drugs that can be found in your medicine cabinet.

Cecile Guilbo, who has been prescribed strong pain medicine in the past, admits to fearing she must protect herself and her meds from a generation that has done terrible things to get their hands on pharmaceuticals. “I used to be able to leave my windows unlocked and open over the summer when I wasn’t here,” she said. “But it’s just not like that anymore. You can’t trust anyone these days; it’s terrible, but true.”

From abusing medication like Xanax, Adderall and even sleeping aids like Ambien (for what many teenagers describe as a “trippy” sort of experience) to much heftier, and addiction-inducing, like Oxycontin. The drug’s main ingredient, Oxycodone, is an opioid analgesic medication that is prescribed to patients who suffer from chronic pain due to cancer, arthritis, and other pain-causing terminal illnesses. Oxycontin is Purdu Pharma’s brand name for time-release oxycodone. When taken orally, the medication releases oxycodone slowly over a 12-hour period, alleviating pain. However, when broken or crushed, the time-release mechanism is destroyed and when snorted, smoked or injected, it rapidly releases what could be a potentially fatal dose of oxycodone.

What many teenagers don’t realize about this drug, however, is how easily opiates can go from recreational use to full-blown abuse and addiction. According to FDA’s website, opiates cause an unnaturally high amount of the brain’s “happy juice” serotonin to be released. Along with other pain-reducing methods, this flood of happiness is a large part of what makes Oxycontin relieve pain. After sustained use of the drug, your brain learns to make less and less of its own serotonin since the medication is doing it for you – so when you finally do stop using, you slip into one of the most painful withdrawals known to drug users.

“It’s the body’s physical need for the drug that causes people to make such hugely poor choices when it comes to obtaining the drug or money to get the drug,” expalined Hahn. In fact, pharmacists across the country have been boosting security measures to protect their staff and their pharmaceuticals from potential thieves. “My pharmacy has cameras installed throughout the entire place,” Hahn said. “It’s our best bet at helping deter losing medication due to robberies or theft.”

Other steps being put into place are having pharmacies moved to the back of the store they reside in, making it much harder for an individual to just walk directly into a store and hold them up for pills. They would have to walk through the whole store, in view of multiple cameras, before actually reaching the pharmacy counter. However, the most interesting concept on how to protect the actual drug users from themselves and their addiction is a new form of Oxycontin that Purdu Pharma is waiting for the FDA to approve.

The pill will look and feel like the original Oxycontin, however, it’s new specialized formula, part of Purdu Pharma’s new “rX patrol” program, would turn into a gel-like substance when the pill is crushed or broken. This would result in making it extremely difficult for an addict to snort or IV the drug. Though the FDA has yet to approve the new formula, John Stewart, president and CEO of Purdu Pharma has been quoted as saying, “We will continue to work with the FDA to seek approval of our [formula]. We will also continue our ongoing discussions with the agency on the development and implementation of a risk evaluation and mitigation strategy as well as a carefully designed surveillance program to assess the impact of the new formulation in the market, should it be approved.”

“If this was approved today, we would literally start saving lives tomorrow,” said Hahn. Cecile Guilbo agrees, admitting that a harder to abuse medication could cause a decline in home and pharmacy robberies. “We just have a neighborhood watch around here, we don’t have any drastic measures to protect ourselves and those who live around us,” said Celia. “A drug that is nearly impossible to abuse could go a long way.”

What’s refreshing is that people are finally beginning to take measures to prevent the release of these drugs to the pain-free public. “Doctors have to do their best to ensure that this prescription is going to a safe environment,” said Hahn. “You have to figure out if these medications are going in an unlocked medicine cabinet that a teenager in your home could easily gain access to.”

Unfortunately, with powerful medication like Oxycontin and other prescription drugs, the old saying, “all it takes is one time to kill you” (that many of today’s youth find laughable, especially when implied with a drug like marijuana) actually rings quite true when it comes to these types of medication.

We’re not helpless. We’re not puppets. We are entirely capable of protecting Generation Y from not only these medications, but also themselves, by such simple things as locking medication in a lockbox or a cabinet with a lock. One small step could mean ensuring that Generation rX lives to see the day they can be renamed Generation Success.