New School Curriculum Addresses Rx and OTC Drug Abuse

WASHINGTON, Dec. Twelve /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --- Type A new school curriculum
that counters maltreatment of prescription and over-the-counter drugs was the
topic of conversation at a fourth estate conference today in Washington, D.C. The
curriculum is comprised of constituents for pupils as well as presentations
for parents. This course of study was created by D.A.R.E. United States (Drug Abuse
Resistance Education), with the support and expertness of law enforcement
officials; the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America
(PhRMA); Abbott; the Consumer Healthcare Products Association (CHPA); and a
number of other organizations, including the White Person House Office of National
Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the
Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the National Institute on Drug Abuse
(NIDA), the Substance Maltreatment and Mental Health Services Administrations'
Center for Substance Maltreatment Treatment (SAMHSA/CSAT) and the Partnership for
a Drug-Free United States (the Partnership). According to the 2005 Partnership Attitude Trailing Survey conducted by
the Partnership, while the maltreatment of illegal drugs is on the decline,
statistics on adolescent maltreatment of legal drugs demo a distressing trend: -- One in three teens studies having a stopping point friend who abuses
prescription hurting stands-in to acquire high. -- One in four have a stopping point friend who maltreatments over-the-counter (OTC)
cough medical specialty to acquire high. -- Nearly one in five teens have used a prescription medicine that was
not prescribed to them. While the maltreatment of illegal drugs is on the decline, SAMHSA's National
Survey on Drug Use and Health demoes that adolescent maltreatment of legal drugs is on
the rise: -- In 2006, one in 10 children between the ages of 12 to 17 had used
illicit drugs in the past month, including 3.3 percentage who had used
prescription drugs for non-medical reasons. -- Among young person between the ages of 12 to 17, male and female
adolescents had similar rates of past calendar month non-medical usage of
prescription-type psychotherapy (3.1 percentage of males and 3.5 percent
of females). -- Most children who maltreatment hurting stands-in obtained the drugs from a friend
or relative for free, while about 10 percentage took the hurting stands-in from a
friend or relative without asking. -- New young person maltreaters of prescription drugs now outnumber new users of
every illicit drug, except marijuana. "The rise in medical specialty abuse, both prescription and OTC, requires
action, and that is why we have got worked with the makers of these
medicines and our ain experts in developing this new curriculum," noted
Charlie Parsons, President and Head Executive Military Officer of D.A.R.E America. The new course of study is being integrated around the state into
D.A.R.E.'s law enforcement officer-led social classes during the 2007-2008 school
year. "Prescription drugs better the lives of billions of patients every
day," states Truncheon Tauzin, PhRMA's President and CEO. "The maltreatment of these
drugs is tragic, and I believe we have got a moral duty to guarantee that
medications are used properly and that we actively work to prevent
medication abuse." "Over-the-counter medicines are an of import portion of the healthcare of
most American families," states Linda A. Suydam, D.P.A., president of CHPA. "The shapers of these medical specialties are committed to fillet the dangerous
behavior of teens abusing these medical specialties through work with organizations
--- like D.A.R.E. United States --- and scheduling designed to educate
communities, parents, and teens about the dangers of medical specialty abuse." "Abuse of prescription drugs for non-medical reasons is of increasing
concern," noted H. Westley Clark, M.D., J.D., M.P.H., CAS, FASAM, Director,
SAMHSA/CSAT. "This is an country that SAMHSA/CSAT sees an of import issue
to address," he said. In SAMHSA's 2006 National Survey on Drug Use and
Health, the maltreatment of prescription and over-the-counter medicines was found
to be a job that often gets at home, highlighting the importance of
informing parents of the demand to appropriately fling medicines past
their time period of intended use. Moreover, the study establish that the majority
of the legal prescription drugs abused by adolescents were obtained from
within their places or from the places of friends or relatives. For more
information on the full report, visit: About D.A.R.E. America This twelvemonth billions of school children around the human race will benefit
from D.A.R.E. (Drug Maltreatment Resistance Education), the highly acclaimed
program that gives children the accomplishments they necessitate to avoid engagement in drugs,
gangs, and violence. D.A.R.E. was founded in 1983 in Los Angeles and has
proven so successful that it is now being implemented in 75 percentage of our
nation's school territories and in more than than 43 states around the world. D.A.R.E. is a police force officer-led series of schoolroom lessons that teaches
children from kindergarten through 12th class how to defy equal pressure
and unrecorded productive drug and violence-free lives. About PhRMA The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of United States (PhRMA)
represents the country's prima pharmaceutical research and biotechnology
companies, which are devoted to inventing medical specialties that let patients to
live longer, healthier, and more than productive lives. PhRMA companies are
leading the manner in the hunt for new cures. PhRMA members alone invested
an estimated $43 billion in 2006 in discovering and developing new
medicines. Industry-wide research and investing reached a record $55.2
billion in 2006. About CHPA CHPA is the 126-year-old trade association representing U.S.
manufacturers and distributers of over-the-counter medicines and
nutritional addendum products. CHPA members are engaged in a broad,
multi-year collaborative initiative, headquartered at
to guarantee over-the-counter medicines are not
abused by teens.