Illicit drug use among teenagers continues to decline, and though that seems like good news, the rise of narcotic drugs abuse is becoming more apparent. Prescription pills, such as Vicodin, Hydrocodone, Norco and OxyContin, are increasingly swallowed for reasons other than just relieving intense, physical pain.

According to a study conducted by the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research in 2007, at least one in every 20 high school seniors have taken OxyContin for pleasure.

The abuse of OxyContin, a powerful narcotic designated only to be used for severe pain, has increased to 5.2 percent among seniors, up from a rate of 4.2 percent in 2006. Like Vicodin, its main attraction among adolescents is to experience a “high.”

“There is a huge increase in the use of these drugs recently,” said Brian Ritzler, a physician with Roseville’s Sierra Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence. “It’s almost like the wave of meth that came across 20 years ago, only now it’s a wave of young people on these opiates.”

The effects of psychotherapeutic narcotic pills are similar to those of morphine, leading to increases in illegitimate use in 2007. In fact, painkiller abuse has risen so high that it is now second to marijuana use.

Not only are adolescents in general using prescription pills more frequently, but there is an even higher abuse rate among females than before.

“It used to be mainly males who were (using painkillers) to get high,” said Chris Donalin, also a physician with Sierra Council. “But now girls are just out with their friends, having a good time, when many of them decide to take the medications, and this is probably because of the desire to attract boys.”

One of the main reasons that teenagers turn to legal prescription pills for a high level of energy is the ease in obtaining the pills, said Ritzler and Donalin. Since doctors usually over-prescribe medication to patients with legitimate needs, extra pills are often left over for hypothetical future use.

“They are available in your parents’ medicine cabinet or in other friends’ cabinets, so you don’t have to pay dealers,” junior Travis Aiken said. “And some (students) probably feel that prescription pills aren’t as bad for you as illegal drugs.”

“There’s not the social stigma of sticking a needle in your eye or injecting heroin,” Ritzler said. “So at the time, it seems less consequential and painful.”

What most students do not know, however, is that painkillers have just as harmful, if not worse, side effects as constant illicit drug use.

OxyContin is one of the most abused legal medications, Ritzler said, adding that it is usually the most-abused medications that result in the most dangerous effects to the human body and mind.

“For drugs like cocaine and methamphetamine, the withdrawals are more in the mind than in the body,” Ritzler said. “But for opioid painkillers like Vicodin and OxyContin, the withdrawals go down all the way to the cellular level.”

In fact, breaking the habit of consistent use of painkillers is considered to be more painful than coming clean off of street drugs.

When pills are used to relieve the smallest amount of pain or just to feel good, the human body becomes dependent and stops producing endorphins, which are natural painkillers.

Therefore, a small amount of physical pain feels worse to the addicted person than to a person above the influence of narcotics. Additionally, just as with street drugs, the brain’s nerve cells cease to function normally and every cell craves the drug, Ritzler said.

The accessibility of the pills and strength of the high make addiction easier.

Those who abuse painkillers can build a tolerance, so their body requires an increasing amount of the drug to feel the same high.

According to Ritzler and Donalin, a normal person would die by taking so many pills at one time.

“We’ve lost a lot of clients who died from overdoses of OxyContin this past year,” Donalin said.

The easy accessibility and the perception of less risk can cause teenagers to pursue energy and good feelings associated with opiate highs despite the potentially fatal consequences.

“(A teenager’s) mindset quickly changes from just wanting to get high to have a good time,” Ritzler said, “to ‘I need this drug.’”

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Contact Kaley Hansen at khansen.gazette@gmail.com.