BALTIMORE — Teen drug use during the summer often goes unnoticed. It’s when school starts and students nod off in class, exchange pills in the hallways and fail tests that the truth becomes apparent.
This school year, addiction specialists say they’re expecting an onslaught of teens addicted to Xanax and other sedatives in a class of anti-anxiety drugs known as benzodiazepines, or “benzos.” Many teens view Xanax as a safer and more plentiful alternative to prescription opioids and heroin — with similar euphoric effects.
But addiction experts warn that the pills kids are taking, often found in their parents’ or grandparents’ medicine cabinets, can be just as deadly as opioids, especially when taken in combination with other drugs or alcohol. And it’s much harder to kick the habit.
Like any addictive substance, Xanax when used early increases the risk of addiction later in life. According to the U.S. Surgeon General’s 2016 report on drugs and alcohol, nearly 70 percent of adolescents who try an illicit drug[1] before age 13 will develop an addiction within seven years, compared with 27 percent for those who first try an illicit drug after age 17.
Nationwide, prescription drug abuse among adolescents[2] has dropped dramatically in the last 15 years, according to survey results published in December by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Last year’s results indicate that about 4 percent of high school seniors misused prescription painkillers, a sharp decline from 2004, when nearly 1 in 10 teens misused opioids.
In fact, an increasing percentage of high school kids — at least 26 percent of seniors in 2014, up from 5 percent in 1976 — are abstaining from all substances, including alcohol, marijuana and tobacco, according to an historical analysis of the survey data published in July.