By Katy Sassara, Co-Content Editor
Recreational use of prescription pills at the school is on the rise, and the trend is troubling for students, staff and the community. But why have prescription drugs become so popular, and what can peers and parents do about it?
In 2016, the Healthy Youth Survey data showed a combined total of 14 percent of students had used Rx painkillers or prescription drugs to get high, an eight percent increase from the previous 2014 survey. According to an anonymous student, prescription pills usually come from friends.
“Some people are selling their medication,” the student said. “A lot of people have anxiety problems, so they can just sell their Xanax and make a few bucks.”
Lisa MacLeod, a representative of the Vashon Alliance to Reduce Substance Abuse (VARSA), says that this is due to overprescription.
“The overarching problem is that [pills] are overprescribed,” MacLeod said. “And the overprescription of those drugs leads to accessibility in a way there never has been before because they’re just everywhere you go.”
This accessibility applies to both opioids like Hydrocodone and stimulants such as Adderall or Ritalin, pills common in student recreational use along with Xanax.
As with anything, there are a range of reasons students would abuse prescription drugs. But the obvious one is social use, such as at an event or party.
“Sometimes it’s like ‘Oh, come over and do this,’ and then they do it at night when their parents are asleep,” the student said.
While this kind of use may seem harmless at the time and is common at parties and social events, unregulated use by people for whom the drug isn’t specifically prescribed is dangerous, particularly when mixed with alcohol.
“Kids who are using opioids, they’re looking for … a stress release, social-emotional [bonding], [and thinking] ‘everybody’s doing it. It’s like drinking; it’s fun,’” MacLeod said. “Taking opioids and mixing those with alcohol is a party cocktail, but because they’re accessible and because they’re at home, I don’t think people make the connection that you’re basically taking heroin. And now you’re gonna take heroin with vodka.”
The other common reason for use is academic performance.
“Ritalin and Adderall, they kind of make you tweak out a little bit and focus super hard,” the student said. “I know people snort Ritalin before tests … Finals week sometimes you get stressed out, and you want to concentrate harder and do better. Like, I’m sure people did it for the PSATs.”
However, according to MacLeod, this isn’t a realistic fix.
“People who are using them at the stimulant level are using them for performance enhancement,” MacLeod said. “They’re looking to work harder, do better, work faster, work longer, be more focused. [But] it’s a fallacy … you think you’re doing better but you’re not. It’s an illusion.”
The other snag in this habit is that it becomes exactly that, a habit.
Lisa Bruce, another VARSA representative, explained how.
“It might not show up with the 16-year-old that’s using because they’re only doing Adderall before a big test, but they’re also not learning coping skills with … stress that we all have, you know, stress in their own lives,” Bruce said.
“It might be a lot more than the stress that I have, but there’s not the coping skills to deal with the stress in a positive way. And by the time they’re 18, and they’re off to college, and they have a big test, what do they go to then? Their coping skills are to sedate it, find some sort of pill to give magic relief … It turns into an addiction that you can’t just walk away from.”
For most students, this is nothing new — years of health classes have made it abundantly clear that addiction is a risk with any kind of drug use. In general, teens and adults alike place too little importance on prescription pills as dangerous and addictive drugs. This also leads to many students being unable, or unwilling, to recognize addiction in themselves, meaning they don’t get help.
“My friends and I have tried to convince other friends who have [an addiction problem] to go to get help, but they’re uncomfortable with that because they feel like it’s a place for people with problems,” the student said. “And they have a problem, but they don’t want to admit it.”
The frequency of prescription drug use at the school has a two-pronged cause, the first being that students who observe recreational use don’t reach out because they don’t see recreational use as an issue. As long as it’s not an obvious addiction, many don’t want to get involved.
“I know one of my friends who is really against [drug use], and she really tries to get people to stop, but I feel like it’s not my problem, really,” the student said. “Like if it’s not a problem, it shouldn’t be my problem.”
This feeling of “If it’s not a problem, it shouldn’t be my problem” is common throughout the student body, and stems primarily from the second prong of the cause — that prescription pills aren’t seen as a big deal.
Because they are originally prescribed by a doctor, prescription pills aren’t focused on as heavily by drug education curriculums and don’t carry as much of a social stigma as other types of drugs. This leads to more widespread acceptance in student communities and fewer precautions at home.
“People don’t lock [their prescriptions] up,” MacLeod said. “So if people are taking medication in a household, especially when you’re trying to encourage your teens to be more responsible as they get older, a lot of the time they are being prescribed [medications], and you’re not necessarily tracking that … I think most of it on Vashon is ease of access.”
That is why VARSA not only wants to educate students about the realities of drug use, but also parents.
“What we really focus on is parent education,” Bruce said. “So lock your stuff up and talk to your kids. [We are] trying to encourage parents to develop that relationship of trust and reduce the stigma of addiction and use, so [kids] seek help and [don’t] just try to hide it… It’s very easy to just go ‘No, my kid doesn’t have a problem. That’s not my kid.’”
While the numbers certainly point to a troubling rise in use and there is ample cause to address the issue, it is important to remember that most students are not regularly using. In fact by senior year, reported use at VHS is five percent lower than the statewide rate of eight percent.
“The majority of people do not do it — I think that’s also important to remember,” MacLeod said. “It’s like the squeaky wheel. It gets a lot of attention, and it’s dangerous … but [the] majority of people are not doing it.”