Teen Kills While on Oxycontin

This week on Long Island an 18 year old teenager Kayla Gerdes high on Oxycontin drugs smashed into a woman and her house. The woman was a mother of two and a retired teacher. The woman was killed in her front yard while doing yard work. The teenager was driving a company van when she jumped a curb into the yard of Rebecca Twine-Right who was 69 years old, killing her and then smashed into her home. It is said that the teenager felt that the van's owner Brian Steele was driving too slowly and took the wheel of the vehicle. The owner of the van is 29 years old and an 18 year old with no driver's license, high on drugs takes over driving? The owner of the van is faced with no charges, which Rebecca's family is not too happy about, rightfully so. This man allowed this teenager with no license and high on drugs to drive his company van! Some sort of charges should be made against him!

Why on earth would a 29 year old let a 18 year old knowing or even not knowing if she was on drugs take over driving, when she had no license to even do so? The teenager is facing charges of second-degree manslaughter, second-degree vehicular manslaughter, driving while impaired by drugs and unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle. The teenager is said to have pleaded not guilty. The teenager is quoted as saying "the thing that made me not feel so bad was she was old, I mean 70 years is a long time to live." She further went on to say "I want to see a newspaper or the news to see what I look like." What an awful thing to say and how scary to think that just because of the woman's age, this teenager did not feel so bad?

Oxycontin is an opioid agonist and a schedule II controlled substance with an abuse liability similar to morphine. The teenager on the news was quoted as saying "I was on prescription drugs." She admits to being on an extremely dangerous prescription medication; yet felt that she should drive a motor vehicle, with no license? Was this supposed to excuse what she did? This is a prescription medication, usually prescribed for extremely severe pain. Who prescribed this serious drug to an 18 year old? Did the parent's have any idea that their child was given this and why she was given this? It is common knowledge in the news that many doctors these days for a price will write a prescription for anything you want. In my opinion, I think these are questions that have not been answered in any news media I have read. I believe this doctor should be held accountable for his actions.

The teenager is being held in the medical section of the Nassau County Jail and her attorney only states that "she is not well." She was unable to attend her recent hearing due to this. No other details were given at this time, but what must cross most minds is that she is in withdrawals or detoxing from the drugs. As more details come in on this extremely sad tragedy updates will be posted. You can also follow and read the full story on this, including pictures and videos at www.newsday.com

Parents once again speak to your teens often, watch them closely for signs of anything out of the normal and listen carefully to what they say. These are the best tools we as parents have to help prevent some of these tragedies that keep happening around our area.

This was originally published on Examiner.com
http://www.examiner.com/x-33498-Long-Island-Parenting-Teens-Examiner