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The shocking arrests of Bayside Middle School students were nothing new for police departments across southeastern Wisconsin who have over the past several years noticed a steep increase in the number of cases involving children stealing their parents prescription and over-the-counter medications to either get high off of or sell.

"We talk about it all the time," said Bayside Police spokesperson Jennifer Mioduszewski.  "Parents need to be locking up these medications, and understand that kids are doing this stuff without knowing what the consequences could be."

Mioduszewsk stressed that those consequences aren't simply health-related, but legal as well, citing the Bayside students as an example.

"Look what these kids are involved in now. These kids could face anywhere from misdemeanor to felony charges."

"The most commonly stolen drugs are Adderall and Adderall XR, people abuse them all the time," child psychiatrist Carolyn Turcott said.  "Also, Ritalin and Methylphenolate, kids crush those and snort them.

"Kids do any sort of opiates from their parents, Oxycodone, Perocet, Vicodin."

Many of these medications, when snorted or swallowed in excess, produce the same effects as hard street drugs.

"It's like speed, so it's like if you did cocaine, basically. You get an increased heart rate, your blood pressure goes up, you have a risk of a stroke."

The danger is especially high when these drugs combine with pre-existing medical conditions.

"I also see a lot of eating disorder patients. They're always telling me how they buy Adderallat school, because they lose their appetite with Adderall. Other kids are selling it to them."

"It's a good idea for kids to not allow them to have those type of medications. They should be locked up," Turcott added.

Officer Mioduszewski agrees.

"Parents need to keep tight control over these medications," she said.  "It might not even be their own children that are the ones taking these medications to sell them. It may be friends of theirs that are coming into the house.

"Sometimes their older brothers and sisters find out that their friends are friends with somebody that might be taking these meds, and it might be the older brothers or sisters that are getting their own brothers and sisters to steal these medications for them."

Mioduszewski stresses that to keep kids safe from the dangers of prescription drug abuse, parental vigilance is of utmost importance.

"Parents just have to be careful, lock up the potentially dangerous drugs, and be aware of what their kids might be getting into," she said.