Students Use Muscle Relaxant to Get High

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A growing number of teens are misusing the prescription muscle relaxant Soma to get high, CBS News reported June 2.

"Some students are crushing it up and snorting it," said Mesa Police Sgt. Sean Kelly in Arizona. "They're also mixing it with alcohol. "

In Mesa recently, 29 students were suspended for possessing the drug. A 16-year-old girl was arrested for smuggling 3,000 Soma pills across the border from Mexico and distributing them at five schools.

"They're really cheap, especially down in Mexico, and everybody's got them," said one student.

Mike Salazar, a drug counselor in Arizona, said Soma is part of a national trend toward mixing prescription and over-the-counter drugs to get high. "If [youths] have access to the medicine cabinet, that's what they're going to mix together," Salazar said.