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Last week, the city of San Diego launched a regional task force to investigate and evaluate prescription drug abuse in the greater San Diego area. The "Oxy" task force is especially concerned with the abuse of potent narcotic painkillers such as oxycodone (brand name OxyContin) by youth.

District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis called teen abuse of oxycodone by San Diego youth an "emerging epidemic" -- a description echoed by other government and law enforcement officials. San Diego is experiencing rising numbers of prosecutions and deaths related to prescription drugs.

One of the task force's first responsibilities will be to measure the extent and impact of prescription drug abuse in the region. Although authorities possess basic evidence that prescription drug abuse is a growing problem, they have not yet thoroughly investigated and evaluated the trend. The task force will be charged with determining how many youth are using prescription medications to get high.

The task force will collect additional information from law enforcement, hospitals, schools and treatment centers, and will also work to raise community awareness of prescription drug abuse by teens. This past weekend, the task force organized the first-ever countywide collection of prescription drugs no longer needed. Residents dropped off about 321 pounds of medications and related supplies.

Amy Roderick, spokeswoman for San Diego's DEA office, commented: "We believe the abuse is at the epidemic level because people who are starting to use OxyContin do not have an underlying medical condition that led to the long-term use and eventual abuse and addiction. Now people are using them in concert with or instead of illicit drugs, solely for the purpose of getting high."

(Source: www.voiceofsandiego.org)

Labels: prescription-drug-abuse, teen drug abuse, oxycodone, oxycontin

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In July 2006, New Jersey law enforcement officers broke a major, youth-run drug ring in New Jersey, rounding up more than 50 teens and young adults in connection with the illegal sale of prescription drugs. The drug ring was reportedly making sales of $50,000 per month of the prescription painkiller Oxycodone, mostly to other students and alumni of the local high school.

Those arrested in July included recent graduates of the local high school and star athletes. At the center of the ring was a baby-faced 18-year-old named Evan Rokoszak. At a sentencing in 2007 related to the big drug bust, a New Jersey State Superior Court Presiding Criminal Judge described the teens' activities as "a large-scale drug distribution syndicate," adding that the abuse of prescription drugs "is not so much a plague on our society as a cancer that continues to grow."

Labels: oxycodone, new jersey, drug ring

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