New Hampshire Prescription Drug Abuse Out of Control

Government officials report that drug abuse trends today reflect an increase in use of prescription drugs to get high, and it is more rampant than many people think.

Police in Seabrook, New Hampshire, 36 miles from Boston and just over the border, report that 90% of the town's drug problem is directly from prescription drug abuse. There were 291 drug related deaths in New Hampshire in 2005 and 2006 combined according to the medical examiner's office. Nearly one-third of those were due to prescription drug abuse.

Certain factors are making this alarming shift in trend hard to control and nearly impossible to stop. Specifically, those individuals who are abusing prescription drugs and risking their lives do not fit the usual profile. They are not junkies, they do not live on the street. They are high school athletes, college students, and your average kid on the block. In 2005, Seabrook Sergeant Detective Michael Gallagher said, "Historically, when we were called to an overdose scene, we'd arrive to see an underweight, malnourished junkie who'd overdosed on heroin, usually with the needle still sticking into his arm. But when a kid is shooting hoops with his pals on the basketball court one day, and dead of an overdose of prescription drugs and alcohol the next, this is truly alarming."

Because prescription drugs are legal, using them to get high does not come with the stigma connected to shooting heroin or being a meth addict. It is not as "hard core" and so has become more acceptable to the mainstream. Law Enforcement Officials speculate that this may be the reason for the dramatic increase in the last few years. The dangers of prescription drug abuse are missed on users who are only looking for a high and not considering the risks. Dosages are a critical point often overlooked when abusing prescription drugs. Painkillers depress the central nervous system and also respiration. Too high a dosage and you stop breathing.

Time-release painkillers are also being used dangerously. Chewing Fentanyl patches or crushing these kinds of pain pills bypasses the time-release mechanism and forces a huge dosage directly into the bloodstream.

In the end, the quest for a high may result in death and sometimes it only takes doing it once. Drug rehab could save the life of many in New Hampshire.