LOWER LAKE — Clearlake Police Department Officer Carl Miller identified baclofen as the prescription drug on which four Lower Lake High School students ages 15 and 16 overdosed last week. Miller said felony charges against three teens arrested last week for possession and sale of a controlled substance were reduced to misdemeanor charges of possession and sale of a prescribed drug.
Miller, who is the school resource officer at LLHS, said 38 pills at 20 milligrams each were sold at a dollar apiece and taken between four students. One male, 15, took 12 pills and was rushed to the hospital by ambulance on Wednesday, according to Miller.
“He was falling down, foaming at the mouth and was incoherent. Then about an hour later ? at about 5 p.m. ? a mother came home and found her daughter asleep on her bed. Her daughter was unresponsive, and she called for an ambulance. She (the daughter) was later found to have taken eight of them,” Miller said.
Another 16-year-old girl took eight pills as well, according to Miller, and had gone home to sleep.
“These were all B-plus and A students. It was during Star testing, and they were stressed and thought they needed to take something to relax,” Miller said.
Baclofen is a prescription muscle relaxant that suppresses the central nervous system”s impulses, and is used for multiple sclerosis and other spinal cord diseases, according to North Lake Medical pharmacy owner and pharmacist Bill Kearney. He said the maximum dosage is four pills in a 24-hour period.
“They were using double and triple that ? I don”t know how they survived. When you put all that in your system, it all dissolves and hits your system at the same time. They”re lucky they survived,” Kearney said.
Miller said one male, 16, brought the pills to the campus. Contrary to a previous CPD report that the teen had 50 pills, Miller said the number of pills he brought to the high school campus is unknown.
Miller cited one 16-year-old male Wednesday, who was under the influence of the drug and found with six pills in his backpack. Miller said he took him home because of his medical condition.
“I stayed with him and he melted right in front of my eyes. He became drowsy and incoherent and started to vomit as I was driving him home,” Miller said. The teen”s mother took him to Redbud Community Hospital, and he later admitted to taking eight pills, according to Miller.
Miller said this is the second incident he has seen at LLHS this school year involving prescription drugs. The first incident in October 2007 involved Ambien, a prescription sleep aid, two students got from a deceased grandparent. Miller said the teens distributed the pills and each took eight, but no other overdoses were reported. No arrests were made in that case, according to Miller.
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