Downward Trend In Teen Abuse Of Cough/Cold OTCs Continues
This article was originally published in The Tan Sheet
Executive Summary
The percentage was highest among high school seniors, 4.1%, while 3.7% of sophomores and 2% of 8th-graders reported they had within the previous 30 days used OTC drugs to get high, according to Monitoring the Future survey results.
The University of Michigan’s Monitoring the Future survey showed fewer teens are abusing OTC cough/cold products as the percentage of students in the 8th, 10th and 12th grades who reported inappropriate use fell to 3.2% in 2014 from 4% in 2013.
The percentage was highest among high school seniors, 4.1%, while 3.7% of sophomores and 2% of 8th-graders reported they had within the previous 30 days used OTC drugs to get high, according to the results published Dec. 16. The survey contacts 40,000 to 50,000 students in about 400 middle and high schools throughout the U.S.
The researchers noted abuse of OTC drugs has been falling among teens since 2006, the year the survey began asking students about inappropriate use of nonprescription drugs. OTC cough/cold drugs commonly contain dextromethorphan which, when taken in large quantities, can have a narcotic effect.
Consumer Healthcare Products Association President and CEO Scott Melville said the downward trend shows “prevention efforts make a difference,” and CHPA’s Stop Medicine Abuse campaign, in collaboration with the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America, and its teen education campaign with the Partnership for Drug-Free Kids are among the efforts.
In a same-day release, Melville said Stop Medicine Abuse information reached parents and community leaders more than 350 million times in 2014 and CHPA reached 5.5 million young consumers through the DXMLabworks mobile app and a revamped, mobile- and search-optimized website, WhatIsDXM.com.
CHPA also advocates for federal legislation, the Preventing Abuse of Cough Treatments Act, to prohibit the sale of OTC cough medicines with DXM to consumers younger than 18 and limit the purchase of bulk, unfinished DXM to registered manufacturers. Lawmakers in both chambers of Congress have introduced the legislation in multiple sessions, but the bills, including two introduced in 2014, have not moved (Also see "FSA/HSA Coverage Tops CHPA 2014 Legislative Goals" - Pink Sheet, 6 Jan, 2014.).
The trade group also lobbies in state legislatures to prohibit the sale of medicines containing DXM to consumers under 18, a prohibition added this year in Arizona, Louisiana, Virginia and Washington and previously enacted in California and New York.