What are the Trends in the Abuse of Prescription Drugs and Cough Medicine?
Past-month nonmedical use of prescription-type drugs among young adults aged 18 to 25 increased from 5.4 percent in 2002 to 6.4 percent in 2006. This was primarily due to an increase in pain reliever use, which was 4.1 percent in 2002 and 4.9 percent in 2006. However, nonmedical use of tranquilizers also increased over the 5-year period, from 1.6 to 2.0 percent. Among persons aged 12 or older who used pain relievers nonmedically in the past 12 months, 55.7 percent reported that they got the drug most recently used from someone they knew and that they did not pay for it. Another 19.1 percent reported that they obtained the drug from one doctor. Only 3.9 percent purchased the pain reliever from a drug dealer or other stranger, and only 0.1 percent reported buying the drug on the Internet. Among those who reported getting the pain reliever from a friend or relative for free, 80.7 percent reported in a followup question that the friend or relative had obtained the drug from just one doctor
