According to Partnership, 1 in 5 teens has abused a prescription pain medication.

A report released last month by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), revealed that treatment admissions for prescription pain killers have increased drastically over the past decade, rising from one percent of all admissions in 1997 to five percent only ten years later. Each year, 1.8 million people are admitted for substance abuse treatment in the United States.

The survey coincides with data released by the Partnership in its 20th annual Partnership Attitude Tracking Study (PATS) of teens ages 12-17, highlighting the alarming rate at which teens continue to report abusing prescription medication. According to the survey, about 1 in 5 teens , or 4.7 million, reports abusing a prescription medication at least once in their lives, and 1 in 10 teens, or 2.5 million, teens reports having abused a prescription pain reliever (such as Codeine, OxyContin, Percocet and Vicodin) in the past year.

The prevalence of and attitudes behind this behavior are cause for concern. PATS shows 41 percent of teens mistakenly believe that abuse of medicines is less dangerous than abuse of illegal street drugs and 61 percent of teens report prescription drugs are easier to get than illegal drugs, up significantly from 56 percent in 2005.