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American Morning
Many Abuse Prescription Drugs
Aired April 10, 2001 - 11:48 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: In health news now, new concerns about prescription drugs. They can be lifesavers for patients, but more and more people are abusing them.
CNN's Eileen O'Connor has more on this.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
EILEEN O'CONNOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): VICODIN, OxyContin, Xanax, Valium -- useful medication in people in physical pain or suffering from anxiety -- prescriptions for disaster for people like Mike Scrimo, a recovering addict at Phoenix House.
MIKE SCRIMO, RECOVERING ADDICT: I started getting high on drugs when I was about 11 years old, and surely just progressed to using more drugs, different drugs. And when I was about 17, I hurt my knee in lacrosse. And so that I could still play and not have to go to the doctors or anything, I was taking VICODINs from the medicine cabinet at home.
O'CONNOR: Being able to get the drugs easy and believing they aren't harmful are key contributors to prescription drug abuse, according to experts. That's why the National Institute on Drug Abuse is launching a public information campaign.
DR. ALAN LESHNER, NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON DRUG ABUSE: Four million Americans are abusing prescription drugs. Seventeen percent of Americans 60 and older, we believe, are abusing prescription drugs.
O'CONNOR: In fact, the number of new users of prescription painkillers without a doctor's approval increased 300 percent since the 1980s.
Experts warn people with the real chronic pain shouldn't fear they will become addicted if they use these pills properly.
Addicts use these drugs to deal with emotional pain and do anything to get them, feigning symptoms for refills or seeing more than one doctor for a prescription.
Frank Odeh believes that it is people on the front line -- doctors and pharmacists, like himself -- who can help.
FRANK ODEH, PHARMACIST: We can tell that they're getting into some sort of trouble once they start bringing in prescriptions from different doctors, number one, or asking us not to bill their insurance company, saying they just want to pay cash for them. That usually brings up a lightbulb to us, and we'll usually contact the doctor.
O'CONNOR: Mike Scrimo says another line of defense is family and friends.
SCRIMO: You know, if you know you had 20 pills in a jar one day, and a week later there was only 10, it would be time to confront somebody in your house, or the people who have been over to your house.
O'CONNOR: A confrontation that brings with it help.
Eileen O'Connor, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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