Christian Mitchell and Courtlandt Siegrist both know what it's like to struggle with prescription drug abuse.
"We would take anything and everything that came in a bottle crush it up and just snort it just cause," said Christian Mitchell. Courtlandt Siegrist had similar experiences. “I didn't know what I was doing and I was with a bad crowd so we broke into a house and stole some peoples’ belongings and it wasn't right at all and I regret it every day,” he said.
Christian and Courtlandt are not alone. According to the Roanoke Area Youth Substance Abuse Coalition,or RAYSAC, between 2008 and 2010 prescription drug abuse increased among young people. 10-percent of high school students and 6-percent of middle school students in Roanoke County admitted to using prescription drugs to get high.
Ray Bemis of RAYSAC says parents can help. "Where youth are accessing prescription medication to abuse is in your medicine cabinet at home where they are unlocked and unsecured,” he said.
As for Courtlandt and Christian, they relied on friends who are doing the right thing as their source of strength and resistance. “I'm fine I don't have any trouble with drugs at all and every now and then
my mind wanders back to it but I know I shouldn't be thinking about it so it's gone,” said Siegrist. "And not it's, like, I have a job I have a steady place to live I hang out, I work, it's just relaxing," said Mitchell.
