Summer House

InfoPackets.com — Major recovery organizations have been using the Internet to help individuals recovering from drug and alcohol addiction. An increasing number of support groups are springing up all over the web with one goal: to provide online, 24/7 assistance to people recovering from some form of substance abuse.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, almost 2 million people this year will find themselves entering some kind of rehabilitation for abuse of various drugs or alcohol. In the past 70 years or so, these alcoholics and addicts would have left various rehabilitation institutions to then begin a lifetime of meetings in church basements with fellow addicts or alcoholics, there to find the support and encouragement to continue their life clean and sober.

Typically, the online venues focus on the 12-step recovery approach — the recovery program outlined by Bill Wilson and Bob Smith, founders of Alcoholics Anonymous. It’s a popular program and, it seems, there is now a 12-step program tied to every possible substance abuse or behavior, including Nicotine Anonymous. Instead of holding daily or weekly meetings however, more and more of these 12-step groups are turning their attention to providing online chat, web forum, and list server-based recovery groups. The Internet is being used to connect similarly afflicted individuals and groups from all over the world. Over the world wide web, recovery meetings are no longer of an hour’s duration in a church basement, groups now meet for 24 hours a day with members checking in and out at will or as needed.

Alcoholics Anonymous the oldest of the recovery groups, now offers meetings using email list servers, VoIP, and chat. AA provides online meetings in 33 different countries and hosts them in more than 10 different languages!

Narcotics Anonymous has more than 20 internationally accessible email meetings and Cocaine Anonymous offers 6 internationally accessible email meetings.

Of course, for every benefit of online meetings, there are also some risks. The use of chat protocols, for example, opens up a portal to the user’s PC that may expose them to risk of being hacked. Email-based list servers also pose the problem of how to remain anonymous when the entire virtual room can see your email address.

There are also hazards from various unscrupulous recovery organizations that prey on individuals in early recovery or their families. Over the Internet, they seem like legitimate organizations, but they are not always. As with most Internet-based activities, various fraud, email harvesting, and identity theft schemes abound. But even in those cases, Internet-based solutions emerge. One organization, All Addictions Anonymous Watch, for example, focuses on keeping a watchful eye on some of the less scrupulous efforts to exploit recovering individuals.

Exploiting Internet technology may prove to be a great boon to people trying to shake addictions. It has truly become Addiction Recovery 2.0. Nonetheless, family members and recovering individuals would be wise to stick to the best known recovery organizations (e.g AA, NA, CA) and, if they choose to participate online, they should get a Yahoo!, Gmail, or Hotmail mailbox using a pseudonym to keep themselves truly anonymous.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Young adults who abuse amphetamines may be raising their risk of suffering a heart attack, a new study shows.

Texas researchers found that among more than 3 million 18- to 44-year- olds hospitalized in their state between 2000 and 2003, those who were abusing amphetamines were 61 percent more likely than non-users to be treated for a heart attack.

What’s more, the rate of amphetamine-linked heart attacks rose by 166 percent over the 4-year study period. That compared with a 4-percent rise in cocaine-related heart attacks, the researchers report in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence.

"Most people aren’t surprised that methamphetamines and amphetamines are bad for your health," lead researcher Dr. Arthur Westover said in a statement.

"But we are concerned because heart attacks in the young are rare and can be very debilitating or deadly," added Westover, an assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas.

Amphetamines stimulate the central nervous system and some are used to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD. But they are also frequently used illegally; one potent form of amphetamine, methamphetamine, is a growing problem in many U.S. cities.

Cases of heart attack in young people have been linked to amphetamine abuse before, but the current study appears to be the first large- scale look at the epidemiology of the problem.

Westover and his colleagues used a statewide database to examine information on more than 3.1 million 18- to 44-year-olds discharged from Texas hospitals between 2000 and 2003. Overall, 11,011 of these patients (0.35 percent) were treated for a heart attack.

The database also contained information on whether a patient had been diagnosed with any type of drug-abuse problem. The researchers found that patients with a diagnosis of amphetamine abuse or dependence were at increased risk of suffering a heart attack.

Amphetamines have various effects that could precipitate a heart attack, Westover and his colleagues point out. The drugs are well known to speed up heart rate and blood pressure, but they can also trigger spasms in the heart arteries and promote blood clotting.

In people who already have "plaque" deposits in their heart arteries, amphetamines may cause a plaque to rupture, which can then lead to a heart attack.

Besides the risk to individual amphetamine users, Westover said, "we’re also concerned that the number of amphetamine-related heart attacks could be increasing."

"We’d rather raise the warning flag now than later," he added. "Hopefully, we can decrease the number of people who suffer heart attacks as the result of amphetamine abuse."

Marin Independent Journal — THE OLD JOKE in medical school was that you weren’t an alcoholic unless you drank more than your physician. Come to think of it, that wasn’t funny then, and it isn’t funny now.

Lately, a number of people have been telling me about friends or family members who may have a drinking problem, and they ask me, "Is he an alcoholic?" Sometimes they’ll tell me: "Well, she may have a drinking problem, but at least she isn’t an alcoholic."

Although we have all grown up knowing the word "alcoholic," this term is very nonspecific and means something very different to each of us.

In the medical profession, we do not use this term because it is so vague. Instead, we describe the illnesses, collectively known as substance-related disorders, in several categories based on specific criteria, as defined in a text known as the DSM IV R, which defines criteria for all psychiatric and behavioral disorders. The advantage of this specificity, instead of using the term "alcoholic," is that it helps guide treatment as well.

One diagnosis within the category of substance-related disorders is "Alcohol Abuse," which is coded in the text as DSM 305. To be diagnosed with alcohol abuse, a person must show "a destructive pattern of alcohol abuse, leading to significant social, occupational or medical impairment, as manifested by at least one of the following within a 12 month period:

- Recurrent substance use resulting in failure to fulfill major obligations.

- Recurrent substance use in situations in which it is physically hazardous.

- Recurrent substance-related legal problems.

- Continued substance use despite persistent or recurrent social or interpersonal problems related to alcohol.

For example, two traffic violations for DUI (driving under the influence) within one year would meet the criteria. If one is repeatedly late for work, or coming to work "hung over," this would also meet these criteria.

Another diagnosis is Alcohol Dependence, coded as DSM 303.9. The criteria for this diagnosis reflect that the patient is physiologically dependent upon alcohol, and would suffer alcohol withdrawal symptoms when he stops drinking. To be diagnosed with Alcohol Dependence, one must meet three of the following criteria:

- Alcohol withdrawal symptoms, such as rapid heartbeat, sweating or confusion.

- Alcohol tolerance - need for increased amounts, or diminished effect.

- Alcohol taken in larger amounts over a longer period than intended.

- Persistent desire or unsuccessful effort to cut down on alcohol consumption.

- Increased time spent attempting to obtain alcohol.

Many people who are alcohol dependent try to hide their alcohol consumption from friends or family. They travel out of town to purchase alcohol. Some try to stop, or at least verbalize that they wish to stop, but cannot.

Alcohol withdrawal is more than just the "shakes." It is a true cardiovascular emergency, with rapid heartbeat (tachycardia), fever and very high blood pressure, which occurs as the autonomic nervous system, which has become accustomed to a certain level of alcohol in the body, now tries to adapt to its absence.

Alcohol-related disorders are rampant, as are substance disorders related to other drugs, such as narcotics, cocaine and crystal meth. People who suffer these disorders hide them well, rarely exhibiting the stereotypic behaviors that we all describe as those of an "alcoholic."

I remember one family member whom everyone decided was not an alcoholic because they never saw him drunk. He was generally jovial and charming, and was the center of attention at a party, although he could be withdrawn on occasion. He drank a minimum of five mixed drinks every day, starting around noon.

If you are wondering if a person might be an "alcoholic," or if you find yourself questioning a loved one’s consumption, please put the term "alcoholic" out of your mind. It will lead you astray. Instead, contact your physician and describe the behaviors that you have witnessed.

Please act before it is too late.

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Las Vegas Sun — Nevadans consume about twice the national average of several prescription painkillers, making us among the most narcotic-addled populations in the United States, a Sun analysis has found.

The consequences are deadly. More people in Clark County die of prescription narcotics overdoses than of overdoses of illicit drugs or from vehicle accidents. In 2006, Nevadans were the No. 1 users per capita of hydrocodone — better-known by the brand names Vicodin or Lortab. 

We took enough of the drug to equal 48 Vicodin pills for every man, woman and child in the state for a year.

And the numbers are climbing. From 1997 to 2006, the most recent year for which data are available, the per capita rate of hydrocodone used in Nevada jumped by 273 percent.

Nevadans are turning to other narcotic painkillers at an even faster rate.

The per capita use of oxycodone, best-known by the brand name OxyContin, climbed sevenfold from 1997 to 2006, while methadone use jumped 12-fold.

Nevada is ranked fourth in the nation for methadone, morphine and oxycodone use per person, the Sun analysis found.

Following crack cocaine in the 1980s and methamphetamine in the past decade, prescription narcotics are “the next big drug epidemic,” said Matt Alberto, deputy chief of investigations for the Nevada Public Safety Department, the lead prescription drug policing agency in the state.

Emergency room physician Dr. Edwin “Flip” Homansky, medical director of the Valley Health System and a member of the Nevada State Board of Health, said the dramatic rise in prescription narcotic use should be examined.

“When you see increases like that, it’s a warning sign to all of us,” he said, referring to the Sun’s analysis.

The Sun reached its findings after analyzing several thousand pages of Drug Enforcement Administration reports on the state-by-state distribution of controlled substances to pharmacies and health care practitioners. (The DEA monitors the production and distribution of prescription narcotics, which fall into the highest category of regulation for prescription drugs.) After breaking down the data by state populations to reach per capita figures, the Sun determined the highest per person consumption of each prescription narcotic, as well as how consumption has changed over time.

Nevada leads a national trend in the growing use of narcotic painkillers. The National Institute on Drug Abuse reports the number of opiate prescriptions escalated from about 40 million in 1991 to 180 million in 2007 — a 350 percent increase at a time when the nation’s population increased by 19 percent.

A few doctors are doing most of the prescribing. A Sun analysis of a Nevada Pharmacy Board database that tracked all the prescriptions for controlled substances in the state, not just narcotics, showed that in 2007, 1 percent of medical practitioners in the database prescribed 51 percent of controlled substances in the database, and 5 percent of them prescribed 88 percent of the drugs.

No identifying information was made available to the Sun, but experts presume that the heaviest prescribers are pain management and cancer specialists.

Although analyzing individual prescribing habits could hint at who might be overprescribing narcotic painkillers, scrutinizing the database with that intent is banned by statute. Pharmacy board officials said that’s to allow doctors to make judgments and prescribe medicine without fear, which could compromise patient care. The database can be examined by police as part of an active investigation, but authorities can’t use it to go fishing for doctors who can be criminally prosecuted for overprescribing narcotic painkillers.

Assemblywoman Sheila Leslie, D-Reno, said it’s important to understand the factors surrounding the rise in prescription narcotic use and abuse, so legislators may need to “take a closer look” at the law that prevents analyzing the state’s highest prescribers.

Narcotic painkillers are derived from opium, a drug made from poppies that has been used medicinally for thousands of years. Opiate use was common in the United States in the 19th century, and by the early 1900s, when it was recognized that doctors were overprescribing opiates and addiction was a problem, their use was regulated and the drugs fell out of favor. They were mainly prescribed to cancer or terminal patients until the 1990s, when their use was expanded to people with chronic pain. Now we’re in a prescription narcotics boom.

The increasing use of prescription narcotic painkillers in America illustrates the evolving understanding and treatment of pain.

Among the chief challenges to doctors who prescribe potentially addictive painkillers is that pain can be described only subjectively, by the patient. It can’t be measured clinically, like blood pressure or pulse rate.

As a result, pain treatment is both an art and a science. Is the doctor to believe the patient is in pain, or is the doctor being conned by an addict or a drug dealer on the hunt for painkillers? Even the best pain management specialist will say he can’t always tell the difference.

The lines separating prescription narcotic dependence, abuse and addiction are blurry, making it difficult to say whether the skyrocketing drug use is a welcome relief, an epidemic, or something in between.

And experts disagree on how to interpret the growing use of narcotic painkillers. Law enforcement complains about the illegal activity, addiction specialists decry that more people are becoming hooked on drugs, and pain management specialists talk about the benefits of narcotics.

Research on narcotics’ effectiveness in treating pain is inconclusive. In fact, there’s some evidence they can increase pain.

Alarmed experts from all fields agree the rising rate of prescription narcotic use shows no sign of abating.

•••

The use of narcotics to treat pain got a tremendous boost in 1995 from the American Pain Society. Its corporate members include the pharmaceutical companies Purdue, maker of OxyContin; Abbott, maker of Vicodin and UCB, and Watson, maker of the hydrocodone drugs Lortab and Norco.

The society set guidelines saying proper pain management includes urging patients to report unrelieved pain. At the time studies had shown that cancer patients were suffering needlessly because they were not being given enough painkillers.

In January 1999, the Veterans Affairs Department, citing the American Pain Society’s statement that pain is one of the main reasons people consult a doctor, launched a campaign known as “Pain is the Fifth Vital Sign.”

The initiative encouraged health care providers to monitor a patient’s reported level of pain — a subjective symptom — as they did the four measurable vital signs: blood pressure, breathing rate, pulse and temperature. Health care providers asked patients to rank pain on a scale of 1 to 10, and were then urged to treat it.

Dr. Mel Pohl, a Las Vegas addiction recovery specialist, criticizes the pharmaceutical industry’s role in making pain the fifth vital sign.

“The rationale was that we don’t want people to suffer,” Pohl said. “In the best case that’s what it was about. In the worst case, somebody was working this out with the (financial) bottom line in mind. Probably both factors are part of it.”

Soon after, the methods advocated by Veterans Affairs were endorsed by the Joint Commission, the agency that monitors and regulates hospitals. Every hospital is now expected to measure pain in a similar manner.

Dr. Jim Marx, a Las Vegas addiction medicine and pain management specialist, praised the advances, saying doctors now realize they can safely treat patients for pain. This allows patients such as blue-collar workers in Las Vegas to continue in their jobs, he said.

The advent of direct-to-consumer marketing by pharmaceutical companies has also contributed to the rise of prescription narcotics. In 1997, the Food and Drug Administration allowed drug companies to hype their brand-name medicines directly to consumers, which has helped remove any stigma attached to their use. Doctors say patients are now demanding drugs by name.

Homansky, the emergency room doctor, recalled the case of a tourist who said she’d left her bottle of hydrocodone pills at home and needed more. After Homansky recommended a nonnarcotic treatment, she stormed out of the hospital, cursing the staff along the way.

“We’ve had people who get physically abusive, verbally abusive and expect that we’re just there to provide them whatever they want,” Homansky said.

The pharmaceutical companies also market their narcotic painkillers by unleashing cadres of sales representatives on doctors and hosting dinners where physicians offer testimonials about the companies’ medicines.

“There’s a lot of money in the drug industry and they push really hard,” one pain doctor said.

No one can say with certainty why so many narcotic painkillers are used in Nevada, but experts make several educated guesses. The lifestyle of night life and partying leads to more drug-seeking and abuse, doctors said. Also, pain is a complicated symptom of multiple diseases that’s intensified by psychological distress. Las Vegas is a transient place where many people are without social and family support and where the nation’s highest rate of suicide shows a population with mental health problems, doctors said.

The city’s physician shortage also likely plays a role, several experts said. Doctors stressed for time may treat the symptomatic pain rather than explore the problem that’s causing the pain. And once the treatment begins it may continue under the logic that it’s what the patient is accustomed to.

Doctors may further be predisposed to cave in to patients’ requests for narcotics because of how they are reimbursed by insurance companies: by the number of patients they see, not the time spent with each. This may lead providers to take the path of least resistance by writing a prescription. Pohl, the addiction recovery specialist, said it takes doctors “five minutes to say yes and 45 minutes to say no” to a patient’s demand for drugs.

•••

Larry Pinson was browsing in a shop recently when a greeting card caught his eye: “The best part of getting sick is Vicodin,” the card read. “So make sure you save me some, and don’t tell your doctor!”

When greeting cards joke about illegal narcotic abuse, Pinson said, “We’ve got a problem.”

The United States makes up less than 5 percent of the world’s population, but is supplied 99 percent of its hydrocodone and 71 percent of its oxycodone, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

As executive director of the Nevada Pharmacy Board, Pinson presides over the licensing of thousands of pharmacists, pharmacies, technicians and wholesalers, plus about 7,000 doctors, nurse practitioners and dentists who prescribe the drugs and about 180 drug distributors.

About a decade ago the board became aware of the emerging practice of “doctor shopping,” the illegal practice of conniving patients’ visiting multiple providers to get drugs, either to feed an addiction or to sell.

So the Nevada Pharmacy Board created a database that would list every prescription written in the state for certain controlled substances, with the name of the provider and the patient, and the date of the transaction. The monitoring program would help catch patients who might be “doctor shopping.” Regulators from about three dozen other states have followed Nevada’s lead.

A growing number of health care practitioners are using the online database to track their patients’ use of prescriptions. In 1997, the first year of its existence, the database was used 480 times. The number grew exponentially to 65,372 reports in 2007, nearly double from the previous year.

The database flags patients who make a certain number of visits to doctors within an allotted time frame, though officials will not say exactly what type of patient behavior triggers the system, for fear addicts will adjust their behavior accordingly. The database then alerts the doctors to patients who may be shopping for drugs.

Pain management specialists in Las Vegas say the prescription monitoring program is one of many safeguards they use to ensure patients are not abusing painkillers.

“Our attitude is that when a patient leaves our office with a month’s worth of medication, it’s the equivalent of leaving the office with a loaded gun,” said Dr. Michael McKenna, a Harvard- and Stanford-trained pain specialist in Las Vegas.

Among the precautions pain specialists can take to guard against abuse are requiring contracts with patients that discourage doctor shopping, urine tests to verify drug use and monthly visits to track prescriptions and lessen the number of pills a patient has at a given time.

But not every provider takes these precautions.

Jennifer Hilton says that after she had a tooth filled, her dentist handed her a prescription for Vicodin even though she was not complaining about pain. She bristled at the unsolicited prescription because she’s a program coordinator for an inpatient drug addiction program for adolescent girls that’s run by Westcare, a Las Vegas nonprofit that specializes in substance abuse treatment.

Hilton admonished her dentist to ask whether his patients have addiction problems before handing them Vicodin prescriptions.

She said the dentist replied that patients should inform him if they have a drug problem.

“I’m sure some of my clients would have loved to have him as a dentist,” Hilton said, incredulous.

Las Vegas medical professionals repeatedly fail to take addiction seriously, Hilton said. On every clinic visit her teenage drug addicts hand doctors a medical feedback sheet that says: “This person is in a residential treatment facility. Please do not prescribe them anything of a narcotic or addictive nature.”

Still, about one in three kids returns with a narcotic painkiller prescription.

Las Vegas doctors say they are aware of physicians who prescribe whatever drug patients desire, so they will return. It’s good for business.

One drug addict told the Sun addicts share information about the doctors who are quick to write prescriptions.

“If you want (the drugs), you know where to go,” the woman said.

She said a few doctors ran her name through the Nevada Pharmacy Board’s database, recognized her as a doctor shopper and refused to give her drugs. But they never helped her or talked to her about treatment options, she said. Instead they sent her on her way.

The woman, who did not want to be identified, said she is trying to quit drugs and is detoxifying at home. Her only hope is her own motivation to get clean. Her only support is from fellow addicts in her 12-step program.

“I could go to the doctor tomorrow and mess it all up,” she said.

Dr. Jerry Jones, a Las Vegas obstetrician-gynecologist who is president of the Clark County Medical Society, said there may be a few unethical doctors who are overprescribing narcotics. “Most primary care doctors are extremely cautious and conservative about their narcotics prescriptions,” Jones said.

•••

Experts struggle to explain the notably high use of narcotic painkillers in Nevada. Two popular explanations are based on myths or outdated assumptions propagated in the medical community.

Every medical professional interviewed by the Sun cited what each said was Nevada’s aging population — assuming older people need more drugs because they suffer from more cancer or painful chronic conditions.

But U.S. Census figures show that Nevada is actually the 11th-youngest state in the country.

National experts said the same thing, and indeed the median U.S. age — reflecting aging Baby Boomers — rose from 35 in 1997 to 37 in 2007, according to Census figures. But the population aged 65 and older decreased in the same time frame from 12.6 percent to 12.4 percent.

The other common explanation for the high rate of narcotic use was that pain is undertreated in the United States and that Nevada doctors are prescribing more, as they should. But data suggesting the undertreatment of pain are dated and don’t reflect the exponential growth of prescription narcotic use in the past decade.

James Zacny, a psychopharmacologist at the University of Chicago who studies opiates, said the undertreatment of pain is no longer a concern for most patient populations. “I’ve heard the pendulum has swung the other way,” he said. “Now there’s some concern about overprescribing.”

The tragic irony is that painkillers may not work as well as people think. Many doctors say they’re not ideal for long-term use for chronic pain. And some studies show, paradoxically, that they can increase pain. McKenna said the research is relatively new, but shows that some patients actually improve when the medication is withdrawn.

“Pain is very complicated,” McKenna said. “But throwing opiates alone at pain is probably not the best approach.”

New York Times — From “Scarface” to “Miami Vice,”Florida’s drug problem has been portrayed as the story of a single narcotic: cocaine. But for Floridians, prescription drugs are increasingly a far more lethal habit.

An analysis of autopsies in 2007 released this week by the Florida Medical Examiners Commission found that the rate of deaths caused by prescription drugs was three times the rate of deaths caused by all illicit drugs combined.

Law enforcement officials said that the shift toward prescription-drug-abuse, which began here about eight years ago, showed no sign of letting up and that the state must do more to control it.

“You have health care providers involved, you have doctor shoppers, and then there are crimes like robbing drug shipments,” said Jeff Beasley, a drug intelligence inspector for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which co-sponsored the study. “There is a multitude of ways to get these drugs, and that’s what makes things complicated.”

The report’s findings track with similar studies by the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, which has found that roughly seven million Americans are abusing prescription drugs. If accurate, that would be an increase of 80 percent in six years and more than the total abusing cocaine, heroin, hallucinogens, Ecstasy and inhalants.

The Florida report analyzed 168,900 deaths statewide. Cocaine, heroin and all methamphetamines caused 989 deaths, it found, while legal opiods — strong painkillers in brand-name drugs like Vicodin and OxyContin — caused 2,328.

Drugs with benzodiazepine, mainly depressants like Valium and Xanax, led to 743 deaths. Alcohol was the most commonly occurring drug, appearing in the bodies of 4,179 of the dead and judged the cause of death of 466 — fewer than cocaine (843) but more than methamphetamine (25) and marijuana (0).

The study also found that while the number of people who died with heroin in their bodies increased 14 percent in 2007, to 110, deaths related to the opioid oxycodone increased 36 percent, to 1,253.

Florida scrutinizes drug-related deaths more closely than do other states, and so there is little basis for comparison with them.

It has also witnessed several highly publicized cases in recent years that have highlighted the problem. Only last year, an accidental prescription drug overdose killed Anna Nicole Smith in Broward County.

Still, the state has lagged in enforcement. Thirty-eight other states have approved prescription drug monitoring programs that track sales. Florida lawmakers have repeatedly considered similar legislation, but privacy concerns have kept it from passing.

As a result, federal, state and local law enforcement officials say, Florida has become a source of prescription drugs that are illegally sold across the country.

“The monitoring plan is our priority effort, but that is not enough,” William H. Janes, the Florida director of drug control, said in a statement accompanying the study. He said Florida was also looking at ways to curb illegal Internet sales and to encourage doctors and pharmacists to identify potential abusers.

Some local police departments have taken a more novel approach.

In Broward County on May 31, deputies completed a “drug takeback” in which $5 Wal-Mart, CVS or Walgreens gift cards were distributed to 150 people who cleaned out their medicine cabinets and turned in unused drugs in an effort to keep them out of young people’s hands.

“The abuse has reached epidemic proportions,” said Lisa McElhaney, a sergeant in the pharmaceutical drug diversion unit of the Broward County Sheriff’s Office. “It’s just explosive.”

Fox News — A warning from the Colorado Springs Police Department. Detectives with Metro Vice Narcotics said more and more teens are throwing "pharm parties," or get-togethers where young adults abuse prescription drugs.

Detectives said most teens get the medications from their parents and grandparents medicine cabinets. They said from there, the prescription drugs are then taken to parties and shared with the group.

Over the past few months, police said a handful of teenagers have overdosed on the drugs. They said some of the more popular pills include Xanax, Valium, Percoset, Oxycontin, Vikatin and Adderall to name a few.

It is called "trail mix," or a bowl filled with prescription drugs free for the taking. Detectives with the Colorado Springs Police Department said "trail mix" is the new party favor at many teen get-togethers.

"Then the kids just take turns taking a pill of their choice to see if it affects them and to see if they like it or not," an undercover officer with Metro VNI said.

Detectives with VNI said they have seen youth ages 12 to 22 abuse the drugs.

"I have had reports of pills being taken from grandma and grandpas when they go visit, aunts and uncles, friends going over to another kids house and taking from that medicine cabinet," a VNI Detective said.

The most popular pills detectives said are schedule II medications, or drugs that are highly addictive.

"Cocaine and meth are schedule II, Adderall, Oxycontin and Percosit are all schedule II as well, so they have the same abuse and addiction potential," a VNI Detective said.

Police said the internet has only made things worse by spreading information.

"They did an interview with a youth who overdosed, and the way he chose what medication to take was if it said ‘do not use with alcohol,’ that meant to him it was a great drug to use," a VNI Detective said.

They said many teens think prescription drugs are safe because they are prescribed by a doctor.

"Definitely, we have seen overdoses," a VNI Detective said.

To keep your kids safe, police said treat your pills like a gun, lock them up and put them away.

Detectives with VNI said prescription drug abuse is a nationwide problem that also affects millions of adults. If you or someone you know is abusing prescription pills log onto the website below for help.