‘Powerful and Dangerous Drugs’

When it comes to teens and drug abuse, prescription medications (or "pharmies") are now second only to marijuana in popularity. Overall, teen abuse of illicit drugs is down 24 percent since 2001, according to the University of Michigan. But prescription drugs are another story. An estimated 2.1 million teens are abusing them—a figure that has hardly changed since the government's National Survey on Drug Use and Health started tracking it in 2002. In response, the White House's Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) is spending $14 million on an advertising blitz about the problem, which kicked off on Super Bowl Sunday. (Remember the ad with the drug dealer in the fast-food parking lot complaining that business is down since so many teens have started using drugs from their parents' medicine cabinets?) Over the next three months the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign will run print, online and TV ads about teen prescription drug abuse. "Most teens do not believe that prescription drugs are as dangerous as so-called street drugs," says John P. Walters, director of the ONDCP. "[But] these are powerful and dangerous drugs that can cause dependency and death."

The Wattles family knows. Evan Wattles, now 19, started using marijuana at 14. Soon he began grinding up and snorting Ambien, prescribed to him for a sleeping problem. Later he added other prescription drugs as well as ecstasy, mushrooms and cocaine to the mix—though Ambien remained his first-choice drug. Finally, after a suicide attempt during his freshman year at New York University's film school, Evan wound up in a four-month inpatient treatment program and vowed to stay straight. He says he has not touched drugs or alcohol since Dec. 6, 2006. He and his father, George Wattles, a math and history teacher in suburban Philadelphia, have now volunteered to work with the ONDCP to educate other families about prescription drug abuse. In an exclusive interview, Evan and his father each share what they've learned with NEWSWEEK's Karen Springen. Excerpts:

NEWSWEEK: Evan, how did you start abusing drugs?
Evan Wattles: It all started freshman year of high school. I smoked pot for the first time. Over the course of two or three months it progressed to an everyday kind of thing. [Then] some girls in my high school who started snorting pills told me all the crazy stories about stuff that had happened while they'd done it.

What did you feel like when you snorted Ambien?
I got very goofy and very, very apathetic, like nothing in the world really mattered to me, and it felt great to someone who'd been up in his head and depressed and anxious. When I introduced other friends to it and they enjoyed it, suddenly I was like the cool kid who knew about this drug. I shared it with them, but once I had introduced someone to it, they'd be like, "Hey, my mom takes that." They would steal it from their mom or dad.

Did your friends give Ambien to you?
Yeah, or I'd buy it from them. Sometimes I'd lie and say I lost my prescription so my parents would get it filled again.

What other prescription drugs did you take?
I did Sonata, which is another sleeping pill. I did Ativan, Xanax, Valium—those were all more on the downer side. And then some uppers, like Adderall or Ritalin. Then there were a few painkillers throughout.

Where did you get them?
Other kids. Or at concerts. Occasionally you'd be able to find someone who was selling a lot of pharmaceuticals, or "pharmies," as they call them. You know it's made by someone in a lab.