Prescription Drug Abuse Essay

With access to prescription drugs, people are able to treat a multitude of diseases and illnesses. These drugs help deal with pain, inability to sleep, depression, and much more. Every day we are increasingly living in a world where there is better living through chemicals. However, what most do not seem to see is the rising tide of pain, illness, and ultimately death being caused by the pills people take every day. Most keep drugs in a special place in their minds, where they see them as harmless. Sadly, this is not the case, and in some cases our prescription drugs can be just as harmful as illegal drugs (King 68).

The rate of death due to prescription drug abuse in the U.S. has escalated 313 percent over the past decade. According to the Congressional Quarterly Transcription’s article "Rep. Joe Pitt Holds a Hearing on Prescription Drug Abuse," opioid prescription drugs were involved in 16,650 overdose-caused deaths in 2010, accounting for more deaths than from overdoses of heroin and cocaine. Prescribed drugs or painkillers sometimes "condemn a patient to lifelong addiction," according to Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This problem not only affects the lives of those who overdose but it affects the communities as well due to the convenience of being able to find these items in drug stores and such.

Prescription drug abuse has become an epidemic in the United States especially among the youth of our country. The Partnership for a Drug Free America says that 2,500 teens a day abuse prescription drugs. Abuse of these narcotics can lead to serious mental and physical consequences. Why is this such a problem, what can we do to solve it, and how is it affecting our social lives?

The drug epidemic in America is a growing problem and continuing to take hundreds of lives everyday, particularly opioids. These highly addictive drugs are taking the world by storm and claiming thousands of life with no remorse. The pharmaceutical industry is making millions off the addiction and pain of the American people causing a widespread of drug overdoses and deaths all across the United States. According to The New York Times, “Public Health officials have called the current opioid epidemic the worst drug crisis in American history, killing more than 33,00 people in 2015.” (Scott Morgan) Addiction, money, and the vulnerability all play a part in the opioid widespread epidemic.

Through my observations of the Narcotics Anonymous meeting I believe that my analysis could be beneficial to the realm of medicine. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2014) released a study that displayed, “health care providers wrote 259 million prescriptions for painkillers in 2012, enough for every American adult to have a bottle of pills.” Considering the mass amount of prescriptions being written nationwide, it is not surprising that one of the members in the NA meeting I attended was able to easily obtain painkillers from her doctor. The specific interaction I encountered during the Narcotics Anonymous meeting where the woman described that her addiction was being supported by the constant prescriptions written by her doctor

Specific purpose: To inform my audience about the growing problem of prescription drug abuse, some common drugs that cause abuse, and their effects and some common treatments.

A new escalating drug abuse epidemic has come about in the recent years; people are now choosing prescription pills as their new drug of choice. The use, abuse and death caused by prescription drugs has increased significantly within the past couple years. All types of prescription pills are more easily accessible from their doctors, family members or off the street. Doctors are handing out prescriptions for pills, such as pain management pills, muscle relaxers, and anti-anxiety, like they are candy and not potentially dangerous to the consumers. In today’s society doctors are over prescribing pills to Americans and the prescription pill distribution should be more closely monitored and controlled. Although there are people who benefit

The misuse of opioids has been around for over 20 years in the United States. In a 2017 article “Opioid Crisis”, it states that in the late 1990s, pharmaceutical companies misled healthcare providers by informing them that patients would not become addicted to opioid painkillers. As a result, healthcare providers too liberally prescribed opioid pain relievers. Opioid abuse rates started to climb and it was clear that these medications were highly addictive. According to Volkow, Frieden, Hyde, and Cha (2014), between 1990 and 2010 death rates from prescription opioid overdose quadrupled in the United States. This surpassed the death rates from cocaine and heroin overdoses combined. Furthermore, they state that the epidemic is a result

McCarthy, M. (2007). Prescription drug abuse up sharply in the USA. The Lancet World Report. 369: 1505-1506.

Prescription drug abuse is defined as using prescription drugs in a way that is not prescribed by a doctor or using someone else's prescription. People abuse prescription drugs for a variety of reasons (Misuse of Prescription Drugs). Some people abuse them to get high, others keep using to avoid withdrawals from the drug. Whereas stimulants such as adderall are often abused by students to improve academic performance.

Prescription drug abuse has been around for well over two centuries, but only recently has research begun to track the abuse and how to stop it. Surveys began in 1970 to document the abuse and has continues since. Although, in 1980 and much of the 90's more pressing items took the front lines and prescription drug abuse was sent to a lower priority. More concern was with street drugs and the crimes that were being committed due to the use of them. Early to mid-1990's surveys suggested that the prescription drug abuse was at an outbreak and was becoming a larger issue.

“Nearly 2/3 of those found in addiction recovery centers report sexual or physical abuse as children. Studies show child abuse to be a major factor in later life drug addiction.”

The purpose of this report is to show the major problems we face in America if we do not address the misuse of prescription drugs. America’s pain pill and heroin addiction exceeds that of all other countries in the world, statistics from the UN office on Drugs and Crimes show. This report will show emphasis on the misuse of prescription drugs and some of the causes.

The negative outcomes of medication misuse influence people who ill-use medicates as well as their families and companions, different organizations, and government assets (Akindipe, Abiodun, Adebajo, Lawal, & Rataemane, 2014). Albeit huge numbers of these impacts can 't be evaluated, “Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) as of late in 2002 reported that, the monetary expense of drug abuse within the United States was $180.9 billion” (Akindipe et al., 2014, Pg 250 Para 10). The

It kills more people than car accidents every year. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention classified it as an epidemic and the World Health Organization reported it threatened the achievements of modern medicine. Prescription drug abuse is a global problem, and the U.S. is the world’s biggest addict. With this being a continuous growing problem several American cities have filed separate lawsuits that claim pharmaceutical companies are liable for their communities’ rampant drug addiction problems. Many believe the drug companies that create and sell these drugs need to be held accountable for this dangerous trend, especially since several have been caught lying about the benefits and risks of their drugs. Some