The focus of San Diego County's OxyContin task force is expanding to include all prescription drugs. The county's prescription drug-related deaths rose 67 percent from 2005 to 2009.
The Oxy Task Force started in 2008 to handle the dramatic rise in abuse of the painkiller OxyContin. But while OxyContin abuse is leveling off, San Diego County Sheriff's Detective David Ross says he has seen a jump in the use of other prescription drugs to get high.
"Primarily amongst our youth," Ross said. "We're seeing kids as young as 14 abusing anything from hydrocodone which is your Vicodin, to Xanax to OxyContin to Tylenol with codeine, Valium."
Many teens are getting the drugs from their parents' medicine chest. The county is hoping a plan to install drop boxes where people can get rid of their old prescriptions at 22 sheriff's stations will help reduce abuse.
