An Arlington, Mass., teen recently killed himself after using the antianxiety drug Klonapine to get high, focusing local attention on the growing trend toward abusing prescription medications.

The Boston Globe reported Jan. 29 that Klonopin, known as "K-pins," is among a variety of prescription drugs being used by adolescents for their psychoactive properties. Teens can get the pills from family medicine cabinets or buy them online for $2-5 per dose.

''Faculty in schools across the region have been very effective at cracking down on alcohol. To counter that, the kids now have gone to using Klonopin as the drug of choice," said Arlington Police Chief Frederick Ryan.

After Arlington High School senior Cameron O'Connor committed suicide, two classmates were arrested for selling prescription drugs at school. The incident has prompted some school officials to consider random drug testing and unannounced locker inspections with drug-sniffing dogs. Doctors noted, however, that most standard drug tests don't screen for prescription drugs.

Klonopin's effects are similar to alcohol's, and the drug can be very dangerous if combined with alcohol use. "People describe it as a very mellow high," said Michael Shannon, M.D., chief of emergency medicine at Boston's Children's Hospital. "If you mix it with something like alcohol, it makes you very inebriated ... It impairs judgment ... it makes people do things they would otherwise not likely do, including take their lives."