Oklahoma looks for answers on teen painkiller abuse
OKLAHOMA’s young people are using drugs at higher rate than rest of nation, survey finds

BY MEGAN ROLLAND

Published: April 15, 2010

Oklahoma teens are leading the nation in the abuse of painkillers, and that statistic from the most recent National Survey on Drug Use and Health has local experts concerned.

Teens are taking drugs from medicine cabinets and using them recreationally, said Jessica Hawkins, director of prevention services for the Oklahoma Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services.

"We have to reduce access,” Hawkins said. "We promote ... making sure that prescription drugs are monitored in the hope that parents who have prescription drugs monitor what is in the home and discard old prescription drugs.”

That’s the focus of her agency’s message to parents during this week of national awareness for prescription drug abuse.

State experts say it’s too early to speculate why 12- to 17-year-olds in Oklahoma are abusing pain relievers at a higher rate than the rest of the nation.

However, Dr. Michael Schwartz, who specializes in treating chronic daily pain at Oklahoma PainCare Inc., said he can’t help but draw correlations between the abuse and the number of prescriptions being written for hydrocodone.

"For the last three or four years, either Oklahoma or Arkansas appears to be the leader in that regard,” Schwartz said, citing widely available statistics from medical trade journals. "It’s the most written narcotic prescription in the U.S., and Oklahoma happens to be number one.”

Schwartz said hydrocodone is a high-level painkiller often sold under the brand name Lortab. He said the drug, however, falls below the level of monitoring that other painkillers like oxycodone, often sold under the Percocet brand name, require.

"(Those drugs) are more of a hassle. They’re more problem for a doctor to prescribe,” Schwartz said, adding hydrocodone can be called in by a patient and refilled without a written prescription.

"It’s easier to write someone a prescription for Lortab and get on with your business,” he said.

Lee McGoodwin, managing director of the Oklahoma Poison Control Center, said teens think prescription drugs are safe because they are approved by the FDA.

McGoodwin said her department is called to talk to students at schools after a student doesn’t return from a drug party.

"It’s a crisis for the nation, but I think we’re leading among the states,” McGoodwin said.

Her primary concern is the huge spike in deaths that Oklahoma has seen from prescription overdoses, both intentional and unintentional.

McGoodwin said a 2007 Morbidity and Mortality Report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention noted prescription drug overdoses in Oklahoma increased 226 percent from 1999 to 2004.

She said these deaths are frequently unreported because they involve people dying in their sleep or in the hospital from respiratory failure.

"We know that there are more prescriptions being written, and we don’t believe that people who are in pain need to be without pain medication. The problem is that we need to educate doctors and the public about the dangers of these drugs,” McGoodwin said.