one of the ones that we at the substance abuse mental health services administration use in conjunction with the department of justice are what's called prescription monitoring programs. so these are programs that monitor at the pharmacy level, the use of prescription opiates and other scheduled drugs, and we're able to determine whether a physician is misprescribing or a patient is presenting in multiple systems if they use the same id numbers, so that we can address that. but there are other prescription strategies, and dr. krantz was talking about one. correct. the one that has been helpful to me as a family practitioner is when i get the message from the pharmacy that did i realize that this particular patient was also taking this, this, and this drug. so that prescription monitoring program has been extremely helpful. the other thing i think we need to be mindful of with prescriptions, especially for talking about older adults, is that most of them can't read the directions on the prescription bottle. so, again, speak-as dr. condon has said, speaking with the pharmacist, speaking w

westley clark, director, center for substance abuse treatment, substance abuse and mental health services administration, u.s. department of health and human services, rockville, maryland; dr. timothy condon, deputy director, national institute on drug abuse, national institutes of health, u.s. department of health and human services, rockville, maryland; dr. barbara krantz, chief executive officer and medical director, hanley center, west palm beach, florida; beverly gmerek, prescription drug abuse prevention program coordinator, peer assistance services inc., denver, colorado. dr. clark, how prevalent is prescription drug misuse in the united states? well, we estimate that there are approximately 15 million people who misuse prescription drugs in the united states, and that gives us an estimated 2.5 million new initiates per year, or, if you think about it, that's about 7,000 new initiates a day. and within that, do one age group uses it more than others? what is the distribution among the age groups? well, i think the most important thing to keep in mind is that prescription drug abuse affects the en

our panel today are frances harding, director, center for substance abuse prevention, substance abuse and mental health services administrationu.s. department of health and human services, rockville, maryland; monique bourgeois, executive director, association of recovery schools, fort washington, pennsylvania; greg williams, co-director, connecticut turning to youth and families, danbury, connecticut; dr. mark godley, director, research and development, chestnut health systems, bloomington, illinois. fran, what is the extent of the problem with youth in america? our most recent survey from samhsa is that around 10 million, a little over 10 million of our young people, are using alcohol and substances. that actually breaks down to 26 percent of them are drinking and another 17 percent of them are binge drinking, which is having more than five drinks in a row at one setting. so it's a concern of ours that our young people are really starting to accelerate drinking and drugging than they have in the past. and mark, it's really...as fran has mentioned, alcohol is really the main problem. what other substances are youth taking to

westley clark, director, center for substance abuse treatment, substance abuse and mental health services administration, u.s. department of health and human services, rockville, maryland. marco e. jacome, chief executive officer, healthcare alternative systems incorporated, chicago, illinois. john de miranda, president and ceo, stepping stone, san diego, california. william lossiah-bratt, board of directors, southeastern regional representative, faces and voices of recovery, cherokee, north carolina. dr. clark, why should we be concerned about ethnic and racial differences within the addiction and recovery field, as well as other differences? well, one of the things that we want to make sure is that people who have substance use problems are able to recover and that materials that we use can assist them in that process. and so, you know, there are differences associated with cultural values and beliefs, starting from how one physiologically responds to a particular substance misuse to how certain substances are used in a cultural context. so if we're going to facilitate recovery, we need to understand