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Prescription High

By Michael Schwanke (WICHITA, Kan.)

Baylee Langford remembers where her addiction started.

“I started…my mom had a lot of surgeries. She had bad knees and a bad back and I would take her prescription medicine,” says Langford.

She says it started with one pill.

“Then it became several…then a whole bottle.”

Langford started abusing prescription pain medication when she was 12-years-old.  She wanted to share her story with other teens and parents.

"It was unreal. Once I came out to my parents about what was going on they were astonished to learn whose houses we were at,” says Langford.

They were astonished because of who else was involved. Experts say when it comes to prescription drugs, expect anything.

The number one choice of 12 and 13-year-olds is prescription medication, which is amazing,” says drug counselor Rhonda Walker, CEO of Miracles Inc. in Wichita.

“It would shock every parent to know what's going on,” says Walker.

She says teens don’t have to look far to get a high.

“It may be Mom has a pain killer in the cabinet,” says Walker.

Sarah Hutchinson got hooked after a liver transplant when she was just 12-years-old.

“By the time I was 14 or 15 I was getting Percocet and Lortab making up pain. I didn't make up the pain, but I made it seem a lot worse than it was,” says Hutchinson.

When Hutchinson couldn't get them from a doctor, she turned to her friends.

Experts say unlike illicit drugs, which have a stigma among teens, prescription drugs are widely accepted in schools. Teens have grown up with them and don't see them as bad, which means a whole new crowd is using them.

“Children who would never use illicit drugs may use prescription meds,” says Walker.

Langford and Hutchinson know all the tricks. That's why their sharing their stories with other parents. They say when it comes to prescription drugs, anyone can be affected.

“It's their child or their child's friend and probably a lot closer to home than they expect,” says Langford.