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Pharm Parties

By News 5

Published: Mon, July 30, 2007 - 9:07 am Last Updated: Tue, July 31, 2007 - 8:44 pm

A dangerous new game is being played by children across the Gulf Coast. Kids as young as nine are abusing prescription drugs. Many kids are selling the pills, trading them and "partying" with them. It's called "pharming" and the wild parties they throw are called "pharm parties."

"I see kids in middle school doing this," says "Whitey" Whiten. Whiten is a drug addiction counselor in Foley. "Within the past 60 days, I've had three reports of young people dying from mixing prescription drugs."

Children are raiding their parents' medicine cabinets, then getting together to trade and mix the stolen drugs to get a quick high. Experts say "pharming" can be deadly.

"A lot of times, the "pharm parties" will take place on the beach in Baldwin County where it's secluded and dark," says Whiten.

"It's not just the children we're worried about," says Lt. John Murphy with the Baldwin Co. Sheriff's Office. "We want parents to understand it's their responsibility to keep their medicine locked up. A medicine cabinet should be treated as a gun cabinet. It should be locked up and protected."

Earlier this year, several students at Bay Minette Middle School were arrested for selling the prescription drug Lortab on campus.

"They got them out of the medicine cabinet from home, they popped a few pills and sold the rest for about five bucks a pill," says Terry Wilhite. Wilhite is the Communications Manager for the Baldwin County Board of Education. "Parents need to keep their pills locked up. It starts at home, the problems of teenage prescription drug abuse is a problem that's going to take the schools, the parents, the preacher, the police officer...the entire community to solve."