Pain Medications Prescribed Early in Life Increase Risk of Illicit Use in College
March 13th's CESAR Fax reports on a trend in illicit use of pain medication where college-age students who were prescribed such medications earlier in life were more likely to later use those prescriptions in an illicit fashion. The likelihood of illicit use increased the earlier in user's life that the medications were prescribed; those who had received prescriptions in elementary school were the biggest abusers in adulthood.
Comments
The cited article does not address "abuse". It addresses "illicit use".
There is a tremendous distinction between the two. In particular, illicit use is not necessarily abuse, except to a prohibitionist ideologue.
Intentionally Confounding or garbling the two terms' meanings is a major, and very profitable, rhetorical device used by drug warriors.
The cited article says:
"College Students Who Were Prescribed Pain Medication in Elementary School Most Likely to Illicitly Use Pain Medications
College students who were previously prescribed pain medications were more likely to report illicit use of such medications, according to a web-based survey of a random sample of undergraduate students attending a Midwestern university."
Posted by: Anon | March 16, 2006 12:44 PM
You're right - I've changed the post accordingly.
Posted by: Daniel Walter | March 16, 2006 07:56 PM