Treat Conditions of Drug Abuse

* Re “Teens’ Abuse of Legal Drugs on the Rise” (Oct. 23): Is it any wonder that teenagers have found an alternative to the socially unacceptable use of illegal drugs and have turned instead to legal drugs?

While America continues to wage a very public war against illegal drugs, we simultaneously promote the use of legal drugs as a panacea for all our afflictions. Prozac, touted as “the New Wonder Drug” throughout the 1990s, effectively distanced itself from the stigma attached to other psychotropic drugs and quickly achieved unprecedented public acceptance and popularity.

It has been widely prescribed for the treatment of depression, anxiety, panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, eating disorders, PMS, as well as other less publicized ailments.

A large percentage of teenagers astutely perceived the dangers associated with illegal drug use and began to distance themselves, but conditions underlying their drug use went untreated and many gravitated toward a “safe high” alternative.

Drug abuse will continue, it seems, until we start treating the conditions that inspire teenagers to start using in the first place, rather than targeting the drugs themselves.

DEE ANNA S. BEHLE

Placentia