OxyContin Consumes High Schools

OxyContin Becomes High Schooler's Drug of Choice

High school students in Northern California are discovering OxyContin as their drug of choice. Kayla Platsis and her friends took OxyContin, at school, work, concerts and rave parties.

"It’s just a little pill," said Platsis. "You take it, and you’re high in 15 minutes. The high is amazing. It feels like someone is hugging you from the inside out."

That seductive appeal of OxyContin has hooked the "Just Say No" generation. The drug has become popular at parties and raves and is rampant throughout Northern California, as well as the rest of the country.

"This is a generation of kids that said ‘No’ to marijuana and heroin," said Jin Tanaka, a special agent in Sacramento with the Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement in the California Department of Justice. "We didn’t teach them about prescription medications like OxyContin. They think it’s okay because a doctor can prescribe it. Then they become addicts."

Drug treatment centers in the area are seeing more young adults addicted to the drug.

"Patients younger than 28 are the fastest-growing population that we have," said Udi Barkai, president and chief executive for Aegis Treatment Centers, which runs 24 drug treatment centers in California. In 2006, 6 percent of the 5,000 clients treated at Aegis drug treatment centers were younger than 28. This year, that figure increased to 34 percent. According to Barkai, that jump is mainly attributable to abuse of OxyContin.

"People who used to shoot heroin 20 years ago are dying off," Barkai said. "OxyContin has a softer look. It doesn’t have the stigma becaue they don’t have to shoot it into their veins."

Sacramento’s Bi-Valley drug treatment centers have a history of treating older heroin addicts. Today, the drug treatment centers are seeing more patients under 30 addicted to OxyContin. Since February of 2009, Bi-Valley’s clinic in Carmichael saw 187 people addicted to OxyContin, or 46 percent of their clients. This year, about 25 percent of the drug treatment center’s patients are younger than 30, versus 15 percent in 2007.

"We’re now drawing youth from the suburbs who are strung out on oxy," said Dr. Jack McCarthy, the drug treatment center’s medical director.

OxyContin is an opiate and entered the American drug market in 1995 as a prescription medication for chronic pain. It was not long before the drug was abused. Within a few years, OxyContin was sold on the streets for $30 to $80 per pill.

According to the federal Substance and Mental Health Services Administration, the number of people younger than 18 who have abused OxyContin has increased at a steady pace since 2001. In 2008, about half a million people abused the drug for the first time. Last year, a study by the University of Michigan found that as many as one in 10 high school seniors have abused prescription pain medications.

"A whole generation of kids as now being introduced to it," said Tanaka.

OxyContin addicts often chew the time-release pills or crush them up and smoke or snort them. The euphoric high lasts for hours.

"The reward is greater than sex, greater than food, greater than any other drug," said McCarthy. "That explains the lure, the hook."

OxyContin users can develop a physical dependence to the drug within weeks. It often takes a year of treatment to conquer the addiction. The treatment is often combined with other forms of therapy to address stress, anxiety and family conflict.