Parents, I have some good news and some bad news. First, the good news. Your teenagers are boozing less and using fewer street drugs like cocaine and ecstasy than previous generations did. On the other hand, they’re nowgetting high on prescription painkillers like oxycodone and Vicodin.

Though overall teen drug use is down nationwide, more teens abuse prescription drugs than any other drug except marijuana. Teens are abusing prescription drugs because they’re easy to get and they’re often free — pilfered from the legal prescription of a relative.

Remember those painkillers you took for your bad back? How many did you take? How many were left over? Where are they? Would you miss them if a few disappeared? Probably not. Abuse of prescription drugs is a major problem with about one in four teens admitting to have taken these drugs in the past year. Abuse of these drugs accounts for a quarter of a million emergency room visits each year, and one-third of all new prescription drug abusers in 2006 were 12- to 17-year-olds.

Drugs used to treat behavioral disorders like Ritalin and Adderall are also popular with teens. With five million children taking these legally, it’s easy to find someone using them and just as easy to “borrow” a few or steal some without anyone missing them. Even drugs you might not associate with getting high, such as those used to treat anxiety disorders such as Xanax or Valium are prime targets for teens.

Many kids mistakenly believe that these must be safe because a doctor prescribed them. sing a prescription drug to get high is no safer than taking an illegal drug. Prescription drugs are powerful and can be as dangerous as cocaine or heroin. Even one improper use of a prescription drug can be dangerous and abuse of prescription drugs can result in addiction, serious health issues and, in some cases, death.

Teens must learn that pharmaceutical drugs can be just as dangerous as illicit street drugs. They need to know it’s not just a matter of overdosing, but that mixing different drugs, or combining drugs and alcohol can be just as deadly (witness what happened to Whitney Houston). And they need to know that it is illegal to use, or to provide someone else with a prescription drug that has not been prescribed specifically for them. If caught they will go to jail.