An increase in popularity of prescription drug abuse has local authorities and pharmacies concerned -- and checking prescriptions closer.

Local pharmacist Marcie Haviland said pharmacy employees at Weis Market, 1471 Martin St., refuse to refill prescriptions if they have good reason to believe they are forged and used inappropriately or sold to someone else.

She added that local pharmacies do closely monitor prescription drug sales for fake or "potentially diverted" prescriptions.

"Sometimes the prescriptions aren't fake, but the pharmacist can just tell that they are going to be used inappropriately because they are being filled too early," Haviland said.

Haviland added that the pharmacy encounters a few of those cases each week.

Jim Walstrom, narcotics agent for the attorney general's office, said that because prescription drugs can be purchased legally, they create a more difficult and widespread issue than the abuse of illegal drugs.

Many prescription drugs are obtained legally, but eventually sold and abused, Walstrom said.

"What we call the illegal diversion of legal drugs happens everywhere," Walstrom said.

Illegally buying and selling prescriptions is a felony, he added.

According to a Columbia University study released this month, more people are addicted to prescription drugs than heroin, cocaine, inhalants and other hallucinogens combined. The study found that in 2003, 15.1 million people abused prescription drugs.

Between 1992 and 2003, the number of 12- to 17-year olds abusing prescription drugs rose 212 percent, and the number of adults abusing medications rose 81 percent.

In some cases, a pharmacist knows a prescription is "bogus" because of the way certain drugs are sold, Walstrom said.

"Sometimes when people forge prescriptions, the prescription will be for 20 and they make it 80," Walstrom said. "The pharmacy knows that particular drug is not dispensed in that amount."

However, Dr. Margaret E. Spear, University Health Services (UHS) director, said Penn State does not have a problem with supervising prescription drug use, and there have never been reports of students trying to fill phony prescriptions at the UHS Pharmacy, Ritenour.

"Because we have kind of a controlled patient population, and we have really good records of what we prescribe, it's easy for us to monitor [prescription drugs], but it does not mean there's not a problem," Spear said.

State College Police Sgt. Mark Argiro said the prescription drug abuse problem is growing nationwide and Centre County is no different.

"All you have to do is find out what it is you want to get high from and buy it or steal it," Argiro said.

Painkillers OxyContin and codeine are frequently abused prescription drugs, but Adderall, which is used to treat Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) by enabling one to focus, is more commonly abused, Spear said. She added that because of its popularity among abusers, UHS only allows trained psychiatrists to prescribe Adderall.

Victoria Stout, psychiatrist at Penn State's Center for Counseling and Psychological Services, said she is careful when writing medication prescriptions for mental health issues.

"I make sure I don't prescribe them to anyone who has an identified drug or alcohol problem," Stout said.

Argiro said people most probably use prescription drugs because it is easier get legal medications that have been prescribed by a doctor than it is to buy "illegal drugs off the street."

Penn State Police Supervisor Dwight Smith said that if prescription drugs are widely abused, he has not witnessed it.

"We might see one or two cases a year at the most," Smith said.