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More than 20 per cent of Ontario students in Grades 7 to 12 have taken painkillers such as Percocet and Demerol without a prescription, with most getting the pills straight from their parents' supply.

The numbers were released yesterday as part of the Ontario Student Drug Use and Health Survey, and should raise a "public health flag" for parents and physicians across the country, according to its authors at Toronto's Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.

Asked about their drug use in the previous 12 months, about one in five students reported using a painkiller not prescribed to them, with 72 per cent saying they got the pills from their home.

"Parents have got to know exactly what drugs are in their medicine cabinet and discard those that are no longer being used," said Dr. Louis Gliksman, chief of research at CAMH.

The Ontario Student Drug Use and Health Survey was given to 6,323 students from 43 school boards and 119 schools across the province, and Dr. Gliksman said its findings are generally in line with national trends.

Questions about prescription painkillers were added to this year's survey because of anecdotal evidence that their use was on the rise, he said, and they provide the first comprehensive survey of opiate use among youngsters in Canada.

But the prevalence of prescription painkillers stood in startling contrast to some of the survey's more positive results, including an all-time low in reported cigarette smoking and a decline in dangerous drugs such as speed, methamphetamine and crack cocaine.

Oxycontin, a highly addictive painkiller that is tracked separately, was the only drug to show a significant increase in the 2007 study.

It's used by about 2

per cent of students, compared to 1 per cent in 2005.

Over all, painkillers were the third most prevalent substance used by students, after alcohol (61.2 per cent) and cannabis (25.6 per cent), and before cigarettes (11.9 per cent).

Girls were more likely than guys to use pain relievers, as were students in Grade 9, when painkiller use spiked at 24 per cent.

Worryingly, more than 11 per cent of students in Grades 9 through 12 said it was "very easy" to get Oxycontin and other prescription painkillers.

Beth Sproule, a CAMH pharmacist who specializes in prescription painkiller abuse, said she was surprised by the numbers, which are almost twice the student average in the United States.

"We need to answer the question about why they're taking it," she said. "In one of the student surveys in the U.S., 80 per cent were using it for pain relief. So they might not just be taking it to get high."

The CAMH study does not ask students why they use each drug, but did find that 41 per cent of students had been prescribed painkillers within the previous 12 months.

"We're assuming that the medical use of those drugs is quite appropriate," said Dr. Gliksman. "Of course, you can start with appropriate medical use of it and get hooked, and maybe that's something we'll begin to look at."

Dr. Sproule believes there is nothing wrong with children being prescribed pain medication, as long as it is done in a controlled manner.

"What's not appropriate is if a parent has some left over and thinks, 'Well, it worked for my headache, I'll give it to my child for their headache,' " she said. "But whether young people are stealing it from the medicine cabinet or their parents are giving them a dose, we don't know."

Dr. Benedikt Fischer, director of illicit drug research at the Centre of Addictions Research of B.C., said painkiller abuse is a major issue across the country, and with all age groups.

"The amount of prescription opiates we use medically in Canada has doubled in about the last 10 years," he said. "There's something about how our medical system deals with problems related to pain."

The legitimate medical use of painkillers can easily descend into addiction, he said, and the euphoric feeling they produce might appeal to young people who are stressed out, depressed or overwhelmed.

"If you pop these things they make you feel very good," he said. "They mimic the effects of heroin."

In a sign that adolescent abuse of painkillers has also entered the cultural zeitgeist, a film called Charlie Bartlett is scheduled for release early next year. The film centres on a teenaged outcast who makes friends at his new public school by peddling pills prescribed to him by a psychiatrist, and whose mother is oblivious to his issues because she, too, is hooked on prescription drugs.

Gloria Chaim, deputy clinical director of child, youth and family programs at CAMH, said children are learning their drug behaviour from pop culture and at home.

"Parental modelling is huge," she said. "If you see your parents using alcohol or other drugs to cope for problems, like they had a hard day at work so they need to take a tranquillizer, that's giving kids a message that pills are coping mechanisms."

Avrum Nadigel, a youth outreach counsellor who has worked in Vancouver and Toronto, said that young people are also sharing information about these drugs at an unprecedented level.

"You go on blogs and there are kids saying 'mix codeine with this, it worked for me,' " he said. "It's something that we haven't seen before and it's taken us by storm as clinicians."

On Facebook, groups called "We pop pills like its going out of style" are populated by hundreds of teenagers from across North America, who discuss their use of painkillers to combat everything from sports injuries to cramps to exam stress.

"Being a gymnast and all ... it's kind of like taking vitamins, just a daily routine to get me through pains," writes one high school girl. "haha...(sounds like i'm a drug addict!)."

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Student drug use (2007)

6,323 students in Grades 7 to 12 from 43 Ontario school boards, 119 schools and 385 classes participated in a survey that studied their use of drugs, alcohol and tobacco.

41%

of students reported taking a painkiller that they had been prescribed in the last year.

20.6%

of students reported using prescription painkillers recreationally at least once in the last year.

72.4%

said they got the pills from home.

11%

of students in Grades 9 through 12 characterized it as "very easy" to get prescription pain killers.

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OVERVIEW OF STUDENTS WHO REPORTED USING DRUGS AT LEAST ONCE IN 2007

Alcohol: 61.2%

Cannabis: 25.6%

Opioid pain relievers: 20.6%

Cigarettes: 11.9%

Solvents: 5.8%

Stimulants: 5.7%

Other hallucinogens: 5.5%

OTC sleeping medications: 4.0%

Ecstacy: 3.5%

Cocaine: 3.4%

Jimson weed: 2.6%

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THE OVERLAP OF SUBSTANCE USE (2007)

No substance use: 1%

Any alcohol use: 64%

Alcohol use only: 25%

Tobacco use only: 0%

Any tobacco use: 13%

Alcohol and tobacco use only: 1%

Alcohol and other drug use only: 19%

Alcohol, cannabis and other drug use only: 8%

Any other drug use: 33%

Other drug use only: 6%

Cannabis use only: 1%

Any cannabis use: 28%

Alcohol and cannabis use only: 9%

Alcohol, tobacco and cannabis use only: 3%

Use of all four substances: 6%

SOURCE: CENTRE FOR ADDICTION AND MENTAL HEALTH