Students sent to hospital over antidepressants

[scotty]

Hmm, no potential for abuse???

http://www.reflector.com/local/conte...Rstudents.html



Students sent to hospital over antidepressants

By Jennifer White, The Daily Reflector

Friday, May 12, 2006

A D.H. Conley High School nurse sent two sophomores to the hospital Wednesday after they ingested prescription antidepressant drugs another student gave them.

The students, both males, took the antipsychotic medication Seroquel on Wednesday morning, Heather Mayo, Pitt County Schools' spokeswoman said. The sophomore male who brought the drug to school did not have a prescription for Seroquel, she said.

The students became groggy after taking the drug and were checked by the school nurse, who sent them to Pitt County Memorial Hospital. They were treated and released Wednesday night, Mayo said. They did not return to school Thursday.

Information on whether the individuals had been charged with a crime was not available at presstime.

Mayo said the students will be disciplined according to the Pitt County Schools Code of Student Conduct. The code states that possessing drugs for which the student does not have a prescription is a Category IV offense that mandates a student be suspended for 10 days and be recommended for long-term suspension or expulsion.

Mayo said there is no history of similar incidents at the school. Principal C.G. Moore sent a letter home to parents Wednesday informing them of the event.

"We've got in the habit of doing this recently just to kind of keep parents informed and to dispel any rumors that may be out there about the situation," Mayo said.


Jennifer White can be contacted at jewhite@coxnc.com and 329-9571.

[Charlie]

Wasn't there another case a few months ago where a student was passing out AD's I think it was Effexor but I can't remember for sure and they were expelled?

[scotty]

I vaguely remember that Charlie. After watching Prescription Suicide I was shocked to learn that the one teen highlighted had taken ssri's with his friends to get high. He shot himself. So much for the "depression makes you suicidal" argument.

[Charlie]

Drug find at Taft nets four student arrests

CROWN POINT: Two prescription medications were allegedly distributed by eighth-grade girl

BY DEBORAH LAVERTY
Times Staff Writer

This story ran on nwitimes.com on Wednesday, April 28, 2004 12:10 AM CDT



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CROWN POINT -- An eighth-grade girl could face charges of dealing two prescription medications inside Taft Middle School when she appears in Lake County Juvenile Court today.

Three other eighth-graders face juvenile charges of illegal possession of prescription drugs as a result of Monday's incident, said Milan Damjanovic, the school corporation's head of security and safety.

Crown Point police arrested the four students after the school's resource officer saw a boy in possession of prescription drugs in a restroom, Damjanovic said. The boy then told the officer about other students who had Adderall and Zoloft.

All four students remain in the Lake County Juvenile Center, he said.

Damjanovic said the drugs were apparently taken from a family member's medication supply. Adderall is commonly used to treat learning disorders like attention deficit, and Zoloft is an antidepressant.

Damjanovic, a former Drug Abuse Resistance Education officer for the Crown Point Police Department, said students break up encapsulated drugs such as Adderall, crush the contents and then snort them.

"It's the new trend," he said. "It's getting dangerous."

The trend is dangerous, he said, because it is not known what effect the drug could have on someone who does not have a learning disorder.

School Superintendent H. Steve Sprunger said the four students have been suspended pending a due process hearing that could lead to expulsion.

"At this time a final determination, as far as expulsion, has not been reached but should be in the near future. Each case is evaluated individually," he said.

Sprunger said he is not aware of any similar infractions by the four students in the past.

He said students are allowed to bring prescription drugs to school with permission from their parents, but the medications have to be administered through a school nurse and must be properly documented as to the dosage.

"That wasn't what this was about. It was about someone getting into other family members' medication," he said.

Monday's incident wasn't the first involving the arrest of students at Taft Middle School this year.

In September, seven Taft eighth-graders were arrested after they allegedly drank vodka-laced orange juice at school on the day they took their ISTEP-Plus examinations.

One of the students became so ill at school that he had to be transported to St. Anthony Medical Center. His blood-alcohol concentration was measured at 0.24, officials said. An adult with a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.08 or higher is presumed intoxicated under Indiana law.

All seven of the students involved in that incident were later expelled.



Deborah Laverty can be reached at dlaverty@nwitimes.com or (219) 662-5324.

[Sage]

I heard that kids were crushing and snorting Effexor to get high..can you imagine what the low is like that follows that "recreational" activity?!

[seahorse18]

My bet is that no one in society forsaw these new wrinkles on the "War on Drugs" when all those "anti-drug" ads first came out years ago. They had better hold onto their hats because it is going to get worse, much worse than anyone expected when it comes to Rx med abuse. Why bother to get your drugs from the local junkie when you can just pilfer your parent's medicine cabinet. Easy, inexpensive and far less complicated to obtain than on the street corner! Plus, it's all legall drugs, right?!

[darcyb]

Heh, definitely not a new trend. I can't remember the book's name at the moment, but I read a review about it where the author describes using Prozac for a higher quality cocaine replacement.

Diaphenhydramine, the main ingredient in Benadryl and cheaper brand antihistamines is apparently quite the hallucinegen. It's an old drug and has been abused for a long time.

it is not known what effect the drug could have on someone who does not have a learning disorder.

That's baloney. Being annoyed at sitting still at a desk while youthful doesn't make you immune to highs, buzzes and other frequently sought physical experiences.