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On December 16, 2007, 23-year-old Cyrus Moinzadeh overdosed on OxyContin and died. Moinzadeh was smart (spoke three languages) and well-liked, but spent time with a group of young people who frequently abused the drug. Of Cyrus' five closest friends from high school, three have died from drug overdoses. OxyContin, a chemical relative of heroin, is frequently prescribed as painkiller for back pain, cancer pain, bone fractures, and other severe injuries. Many teenagers obtain the drug over the Internet from unscrupulous companies in Canada and Mexico.

OxyContin is produced as a time-release tablet, so non-medical users will often smash up the pills to snort them or melt them to smoke (they will place the pills on foil and apply heat from underneath). Scott Henderson of the San Diego Police Department narcotics division advises parents to be aware of their teenagers' activities. Henderson recommends looking on teens' Facebook and MySpace pages, because that's commonly where they exchange information about getting drugs. Henderson also said to be on the lookout for the tinfoil used to smoke it since Oxy leaves black charred streaks. "If you're running out of tin foil and you don't make a lot of casseroles, I'm telling you right now something is amiss." (Source: www.delmartimes.com)

Labels: prescription-drug-abuse

Posted By: Aspen Education Group