Some Parents Underestimate Teens' Access to Beer and Prescription Drugs
Ask teens in a recent study how easy it is for them to buy prescription drugs and 19% will say they are easier to access than marijuana, cigarettes or beer. Yet, ask their parents and only 8% will say that prescription drugs are the easiest for their teens to buy. Looks like there are some misperceptions when it comes to these abused substances.

Prescription drug abuse is a problem among some of today's students, as they access substances including Oxycontin, Percocet, Vicodin and Ritalin for what some perceive as a "safe" high. This isn't the case. Students often buy prescription drugs from friends, dealers or through the Internet, all without a prescription. As a result, they can never quite be sure what has been mixed into the pills that they're receiving. Plus, prescription drugs, when abused, can do a great deal of physical harm.

The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University's National Survey of American Attitudes on Substance Abuse XIII: Teens and Parents (August 2008) spotlights parental misperceptions about a variety of substances. In addition to the prescription drug discrepancy, 15% of teens said beer was the easiest for them to access, while only 9% of their parents thought that was the case.

And then 39% of these same parents thought cigarettes were the easiest substance for their students to access, when only 25% of students thought the same. It seems continued conversation and awareness is necessary to help teens and parents get closer to the same page.

Source: Center for Substance Abuse Research at the University of Maryland, College Park, www.cesar.umd.edu/cesar/cesarfax/vol17/17-46.pdf