Prescription Drug Abuse
Prescription Drugs
Someone you know is probably addicted to a prescription medication. Prescription drugs represent the most widely abused drugs in America today. The abuse surpasses even Marijuana.
More Americans are abusing prescription drugs than cocaine, heroin, hallucinogens, Ecstasy, and inhalants combined, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.
The familiarity of many families with generic and brand names such as Oxycodone, Oxycontin, Hydrocodone, Xanax, Morphine, Diazepam, confirms the epidemic.
People of all ages are becoming addicted.
One in five teens abuse prescription medications to get high. Often times the drugs are taken from the family medicine cabinet and given out to friends at “pharm” parties. They can usually also be purchased from school, or the dealer supplying your kid may be a pharmacist.
“It’s an epidemic and I’m afraid we’re losing a whole generation. These pain medications are so highly addictive that these young people are digging themselves a very deep hole,” said Beth Lewis Maze, the Chief Circuit Judge for the 21st Judicial Circuit in Kentucky in an interview on MSNBC last year.
In an interview on the CBS Early Show National Drug Control Policy Director Gil Kerlikowske said, “The issue of prescription drug abuse, which the Office of National Drug Control Policy has been shouting about from the rooftops, is a significant problem in this country.”
The Office of National Drug Control Policy has begun to spend its entire budget for media campaigns directed at parents – $14 million since 2008 – on the abuse of prescription and over the counter drugs.
It’s harder to “just say no”, when your doctor says “yes”. While media attention continues to be on prescription drug abuse, not enough attention has been placed on the fact that many of these addictions begin with a trip to the doctor and a resultant prescription. Sometimes these prescribed drugs wind up in the wrong hands, but some responsibility would still lie with the purveyor. It’s no secret that some of these prescriptions are obtained with the intent to abuse them, either personally or by giving them away.
The real problem facing America is Prescription drug abuse which has held steady over the past five years according to the Partnership for a Drug-Free America, with nearly one in five teens (19 percent) abusing prescription medications to get high.
As pharmaceutical abuse increases, our safety measures have to increase commensurately. Over the Counter and Prescription Drug abuse is life threatening. Concerned citizens and legislatures have done an excellent job of getting drunken driving under control and the same can be done with prescription drugs.
For those who are addicted to prescription medication, immediate treatment is needed – the consequences of this type of addiction can be deadly.
If you suspect that someone you know is addicted to prescription drugs, then you must do something immediately- before it is too late.
