ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- Drug Enforcement Agents said prescription medications are the new gateway drug for teens, forming an expensive dependence that leads kids to look for cheaper ways to get high. DEA agents said prescription drug cases present different problems."It's not your standard drug investigation because possession alone is not inherently illegal. We have to kind of work at it a little bit more (to) understand if it came from an illegal source," agent Eduardo Chavez said.Investigators face an alarming trend. The DEA's office said about 10 percent of kids between the ages of 13 to 17 have taken pain pills without a prescription.Earlier this year, federal agents conducted a sting operation involving several doctors' offices accused of overprescribing pain medication."It's really becoming the forefront of what is getting kids addicted to controlled substances, and the very obvious gateway from prescription narcotics and opioids to then, heroin," Chavez said.Investigators are worried that some doctors could be to blame, as some patients go from office to office in search of prescriptions. From there, agents said, kids can get them off the streets, from friends or their parents' medicine cabinets.When the habit becomes too expensive, the DEA said, teens turn to heroin, which is cheaper but offers a similar high."Those kids, they take a vicodin, oxycodone, and it becomes too expensive. And now, they're looking toward a bb of heroin," Chavez said.Because of the alarming rise, investigators at the DEA's office are working on a program to help people who are abusing the medication.According to the medical investigator's office, drug overdose is the leading cause of accidental death in New Mexico.
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