Do We Need Drug Rehab Kentucky? You Bet!

Kentucky leads the nation in the non-medical use of prescription drugs - and a lot of it comes straight from the high schools.  In fact, there's a good chance that the non-medical use of prescription drugs, over the counter drugs and alcohol will send more than 15,000 Kentucky high school students to drug detox and drug rehab.

How many kids are we talking about, and how bad is the situation? There are nearly 290,000 14 to 18-year-olds in the State of Kentucky. One in five - 60,000 - have abused pain medication, one in five have abused prescription stimulants and tranquilizers, and 30,000 have abused cough medicine.

There are probably 75,000 seniors in the Kentucky high school system. Of those, 7,500 use prescription drugs monthly. Even more frightening is the 3,700 that use prescription drugs at least six times a month. And that's just the kids. In fact, Kentucky leads the nation in non-medical use of pain relievers such as OxyContin, Darvon and Percodan and for tranquilizers like Xanax and Valium.

These drugs are dangerous - Vicodin, OxyContin, Xanax and Valium, to name a few - are very addictive and sometimes even more difficult to withdraw from than street drugs. Many kids, and adults, will need drug detox to get off them safely, and often they'll need to follow up the detox with drug rehab.

Then there's the alcohol addiction and abuse problem: Half the seniors are drinking regularly and, at some point, 30,000 of them may need alcohol rehab. A good rule of thumb is that 40% of underage drinkers will need alcohol rehab or some type of treatment for alcohol abuse or addiction at some point in their life.

If you project all the numbers into the future, it is possible that 150,000 high school students will be drinking regularly if not heavily by their senior year, 29,000 will be using prescription drugs monthly, and 15,000 will be using prescription drugs twice a week.

But that's just the high school scene. These numbers obviously don't include the adults who are dependent on or addicted to prescription drugs or those who have a problem with alcohol addiction or abuse - and those numbers far exceed the high school numbers..

If you live in Kentucky, there's a good chance you know someone who has a drug or alcohol problem and who may need drug or alcohol detox and rehab. Drug Rehab Referral can help you find an alcohol or drug detox program, or an alcohol or drug rehab program, to help them out. Give us a call to find a Kentucky drug rehab program that's right for their situation.