Troubled Teens Resources

The fight against teen age drug abuse, specifically against prescription drug abuse, is a bit harder for parents and law enforcement in the state of Florida. Both abusers and dealers have been flooding into the state because it’s one of several states in the country that does not keep a central data base of prescriptions filled.

Recent reports have indicated that illegally obtained prescription pills now out paces illegal drug abuse as the reigning threat our teens at risk face nationwide.

“Drug abusers and drug dealers have discovered a soft spot in the nation’s prescription drug system — the Sunshine State — and they’re exploiting this weakness with increasing regularity.

The number of prescriptions written in Florida for morphine, codeine, meperidine, oxycodone and hydrocodone rose 142 percent between 1997 and 2005…Between 2000 and 2006, an average of 341 people died in the state each year by overdosing on Oxycontin and Percocet.

There’s a reason Florida has become so popular with the prescription drug crowd — and it’s not the sunshine.

The state lacks a central database that would enable authorities to monitor excessive — and suspicious — purchases of prescription drugs, and investigate abuses.
[…]
Drug addicts and dealers often will choose the path of least resistance. When one state cracks now on some aspect of the drug trade, the purveyors of illegal products inevitably seek out new territories.”

(source)