LAPORTE — Police have arrested a 14-year-old boy in LaPorte for having prescription drugs at his middle school.

It's another in a series of arrests at LaPorte Schools for prescription drugs.

Police arrested the boy Monday at Kesling Middle School for having a pill used to treat rheumatoid arthritis.

Police say five boys were involved, and what scares them is that they admitted to taking pills from the boy, but they don’t know what they took.

This comes just one week after police arrested another 14-year-old for selling prescription drugs at Boston Middle School.

The pills involved there are used to treat seizures.

A few weeks before, police arrested three students at LaPorte High School for having drugs used to treat Attention Deficit Disorder.

“You can get it from just about anywhere, and people are getting it from their ADD medication, their grandparents, their parents' pills,” explained LaPorte High School student Ben Novak.

It’s not just a problem in LaPorte.

The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy has launched its first major effort to educate people about prescription drug abuse.

They say every day 2,500 kids between 12 and 17 will abuse a prescription painkiller for the first time.

“Bottom line is that they're going to your medicine cabinet to get high, not always to the street,” said Lt. Tim Williams with the Mishawaka Police Department.

Williams calls prescription drug abuse a problem at all high schools.

This year he started teaching fifth graders about it as part of the D.A.R.E. program.

“It doesn't matter what high school you have, it's going to be a problem because teens think it's a safe high,” said Williams.

Doctors say it's not.

“The non steroidals will give you potential ulcers and bleeding problems. Pain medications — obviously sedation, particularly if you’re driving,” explained Dr. Tom Sweeney at St. Joseph Regional Medical Center.

As for the popular pills used to treat ADD, if you take too many Dr. Sweeney said, “One of the risk factors of those medications is seizures, and if you're in your backyard or your parents are not home and a child has a seizure they could aspirate, develop pneumonia or die."

Dr. Sweeney also says some of the drugs children think they're taking to get high won't make them feel anything.

Police say this is a tough problem to catch because children usually get it at home and it’s easy to take.

At the Juvenile Justice Center last year, only 10 children in St. Joseph County were charged with selling prescription drugs out of the 3,000 children charged with different crimes.

They point out that those 10 kids were selling drugs to other students, which means more children are involved.

Police say the best thing parents can do is lock their medicine cabinets and talk to their kids about the risks involved.

For more information on the abuse of prescription drugs and tools parents and caregivers can use to help stop this dangerous trend, go to www.theantidrug.com.