June 24, 3013
You can sign up to receive a weekly fact sheet called CESAR FAX in your email. Go to http://www.cesar.umd.edu/cesar/cesarfax.asp. The May 6th, 2013 issue asked 3,884 U.S. high school students why they use prescription drugs without a prescription. The number one reason given by 18% was ‘to help me relax’ followed by’16% who reported ‘to have fun’. If you add in the 13% who said ‘to help me forget my troubles’ and the 11% who said ‘to deal with pressures and stress of school’–you have 42% using prescription drugs that were NOT prescribed to them to deal with anxiety and stress. We truly need to find creative programs to help high school students deal with their daily lives–programs that do not include prescription drugs that were not prescribed for the students using them.
