West Virginia struggling with prescription drug abuse

Prescription drugs continues to affect many individuals throughout the nation. Using medication, namely painkillers, recreationally has increased in recent years due to more doctors prescribing the drugs to people who do not necessarily require them.

Both health officials in West Virginia are seeing an increase of deaths from accidental overdose of prescription medications, the Bluefield Daily Telegraph reports.

Officials from Mercer County told the news source that in addition to overdoses, other crimes are a result of drug abuse.

“Recently, the most popular have become K4 - which is synthetic morphine - and methadone. Many people are ‘narcotic naive’ and their systems are not used to the opiate," Scott Ash, Mercer County prosecuting attorney, told the news source. "They do not realize their bodies cannot handle as much as maybe their buddy’s can."

Residential programs for troubled teens can help provide adolescents with education that can help prevent them from using prescription drugs recreationally.

The 2008 Monitoring the Future survey revealed that approximately 10 percent of high school seniors used the prescription painkiller Vicodin at least once in the 12 months prior to the study.