Access to Legal Drugs Fueling Teen Drug Culture

a prescription sleep aid commonly known by the brand name Lunesta.

Click on this link, and you will find an informational page about the drug -- as well as testimonials from those who have used the drug recreationally.

The entries of each drug list common names, as well as any street names. Many come complete with a summary of positive effects, side effects and hangover/day after information listed in easy-to-reference tables.

Erowid isn't the only site of its kind out there. And though any explicit encouragement to abuse these drugs is absent from many of these sites, many see Internet resources like these as evidence of a growing culture of prescription and OTC drug abuse.

"Sites like these are a veritable how-to for people who are interested in using just about any drug imaginable," says Paul Doering, co-director of the Drug Information and Pharmacy Resource Center at Shands at the University of Florida. "These Web sites are downright frightening, and word spreads quickly."

"They just get it. It's just out there," Saper says. "These kids are self-medicating with the drugs that are available to them."

The Internet also makes it easier for would-be abusers to get their hands on these medications.

"This is all part of the liberalization and the availability of the drugs offered by the Internet," Saper says. "And who uses the Internet? Well, for sure, kids do."

Further evidence of the culture can be seen in the evolution of street monikers for prescription and even OTC medicines. Coricidin Cough and Cold, for example, becomes "Triple C" or "Skittles."

Doering, who delivers lectures on the subject of OTC drugs, says the net result is that teens are becoming more familiar with the drugs in general.

"Five or six years ago, I would mention the names Vicodin, Lortabs, Xanax and Valium, and nobody would know what I was talking about," he says. "But what I do now is tell them to nod if they know what I'm talking about, and when you ask questions about these you'd think it was bobblehead night at Yankee Stadium.