Who is the Most Vulnerable to Oxycontin and Drug Addiction?
• Adolescents – According to the 2003 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 9.2% of adolescents aged 12-17 had used a prescription psychotherapeutic drug for non-medical reasons in the past year and 4.0 percent were current users. Prescription opioids are a particularly serious problem in this age group. NIDA’s 2004 Monitoring the Future survey of 8th-, 10th-, and 12thgraders found that 5.0% of 12th-graders reported abusing OxyContin in the past year, and 9.3% reported abusing Vicodin, making Vicodin one of the most commonly abused prescription drugs in this population. Another troubling trend is the recent phenomena known as “pharming,” where young people mix prescription medications and ingest some or all of them at once, unaware of potentially severe drug interactions. • Elderly Adults – Although persons 65 years of age and above comprise only 13% of the population, they are prescribed approximately one-third of all medications in the United States. In addition, older patients are
