Sat, Aug 16, 2008 (2:08 a.m.)

A national survey of children aged 12 to 17 on substance abuse found an alarming new trend that parents should address with their children. For the first time in the 13-year history of the survey, more teenagers said it was easier for them to illegally obtain prescription drugs than beer.

The survey, from the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, also asked teens how drugs were obtained, and the answers were disturbing. The most commonly identified source, at 34 percent, was parents or their medicine cabinets. That was followed by friends or classmates, 31 percent, and drug dealers or other sources, 25 percent. The teens identified painkillers as the most commonly abused prescription drug.

It would be naive to believe this problem doesn’t extend to Nevada. The Las Vegas Sun reported in July that this state is among the nation’s leaders in the consumption of prescription painkillers.

Former Health, Education and Welfare Secretary Joseph Califano Jr., who is the center’s chairman and president, made sense when he said that parents must do a better job of safeguarding their prescription drugs from children.

“By leaving abusable and addictive medications like OxyContin and Vicodin around the house, thus making these drugs readily available to their children, these problem parents become passive pushers,” he said in a statement.

The danger that children can overdose on pills they find around the house is very real. The shame of it is that many of these tragic cases could have been avoided had their parents taken the time to secure the medication in a safe place.

Parents also should continue to have frank conversations with their children, not only about harmful street drugs, but also about medications such as painkillers that can turn deadly if abused.