School Resource Officer with the Meridian Police Department, David Gomez, calls himself the expert of finding things — but what he’s finding in local high schools is alarming.
“What we’re seeing in the schools is more and more prescription pills are coming into the schools that don’t belong to the kids that we’re finding them on,” Gomez said.
The top three pills being trafficked are Xanax, Adderall and Vicodin. However, in recent months, SROs are seeing other pills being passed around — ones made in homes, not pharmacies.
They’re known as “pressies.”
“They can buy a pill press from Amazon, they can order some of the ingredients, they can kind of tailor-make some pills and actually press them together themselves and sell them,” Gomez said.
The result, officers say, is extremely dangerous and in some cases, even deadly.
“We see things at the school…kids just walking around and then they fall over, they miss a door completely, they bang into things,” Gomez said. “All of these prescription pills have different effects on everybody.”
If caught selling prescription drugs at school, students can face charges of drug possession and distribution, both of which are felonies.
Gomez recommends starting a conversation with your kids about safe prescription drug use. He also recommends safely disposing of your unused or unwanted prescription pills at your local police station.
There, you can place them in a secure drop-off bin, no questions asked.
