About Medscape Reference. Medscape Reference is the most authoritative and accessible point-of-care medical reference available to physicians and other health care professionals on the Internet and via mobile devices. Three distinct references, the Medscape Condition Reference, the Medscape Procedure Reference, and the Medscape Drug Reference make up Medscape Reference.
Benzodiazepines are a type of medication known as tranquilizers. Familiar names include Valium and Xanax. They are some of the most commonly prescribed medications in the United States. When people without prescriptions obtain and take these drugs for their sedating effects, use turns into abuse.
1 White adolescents smoked cigarettes at a higher rate than did African-American adolescents in 2009, with 24 percent of white high school seniors reporting that they smoke compared to only nine percent of African-American seniors. Marijuana usage rates were nearly identical among white and African-American adolescents; about 21 percent of high school seniors from both racial/ethnic groups reported usage in 2009.