Online Activity Contributes to Nation?s Surging Prescription Drug Abuse

The Drug Enforcement Administration cracks down on illegal internet drug trafficking.

The National Survey on Drug Use and Health released the latest in a series of reports on the rising prescription drug abuse epidemic in the United States.  The survey indicated that about 6 percent of young adults used prescription drugs non-medically in the past month, and 29 percent had used in their lifetime.  There were an estimated 7.5 million current users of narcotic pain relievers, tranquilizers, stimulants and sedatives.

In an effort to curb some of this abuse, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) announced the arrest of 18 individuals this week after the successful conclusion of Operation CYBERx, which targeted more than 22 rogue internet pharmacies. These individuals were arrested for allegedly being the ringleaders of this multi-million dollar fraudulent drug distribution network.

In a DEA release, Administrator Karen Tandy said, "Rogue internet pharmacies are run by drug traffickers who operate their criminal rings while hiding behind their computer screens." 

In addition to filling internet drug orders, the ring leader allegedly sold codeine cough syrup to local drug traffickers directly from the backdoor of his warehouses. There are many high school and college-aged youths who currently use the codeine cough syrup to get high.

The Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) is working with state legislatures to cut down the rising numbers of prescription drug abusers.  One of the main avenues is state-level prescription drug monitoring programs, which have taken a leading role in detecting and deterring the diversion of popular prescription controlled substances.  Prescription drug monitoring programs are currently in place or plan to be operational in 24 states this year.

Preliminary data from the Partnership for a Drug-Free America's Attitude Tracking Study suggests that many adolescents do not consider pharmaceutical drug abuse to be risky.

"What many people forget," comments Gary W. Smith, Executive Director of Narconon Arrowhead, "Is that prescription drugs have the potential to be just as harmful as street drugs, and that most of today's illegal drugs were once marketed and sold as pharmaceuticals."

Narconon Arrowhead is one of the nation's largest and most effective drug rehabilitation and education centers.  The program's proven successful approach is directly attributed to the application of American author and humanitarian L. Ron Hubbard's secular drug-free rehabilitation methodology.

To find out more information about drugs and addiction contact Narconon Arrowhead today by calling 1-800-468-6933 or visit www.stopaddiction.com.

To help cut down on illegal online drug trafficking, the DEA launched a toll-free hotline to report the sale of controlled substances.  You can help by calling 1-877-RX-ABUSE or log on to www.dea.gov.

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