Prescription Drug Addiction Paper

About 80% of American adults consume 200 mg of caffeine a day. “A 12-oz. (tall) coffee from Starbucks will run you about 260 mg, while a 14-oz. Dunkin’ Donuts coffee contains 178 mg.” The daily intake of caffeine differed between products; one should always check the amount before consumption. There are no limits on how many energy drinks a person can purchase, which make it easy to abuse. Especially in younger children the addiction rate outstandingly high. Which may lead to other drug usage in the future and the committal dependence on stronger drugs.

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?

Most people are familiar with prescription medications; almost everyone has taken them at one point or another during their lifetime. Not all prescription drugs are addicting, but a large number of them are. Prescription drug abuse is a disease that has become a major problem in the United States, which affects over six-million Americans. Prescription drug abuse not only affects the individual, but can additionally have far-reaching consequences that affect family, personal health, employment, communities and society as a whole. Research has shown that at least 10% of people prescribed an addictive medication will become dependent on the medicine. Due to prescription drug abuse, states are beginning to monitor doctors who prescribe certain medications, more closely, which may scare some physicians away from prescribing helpful medications to people who truly need them.

Tegan Dalton Ms. Gibbons English Senior Thesis 11 December 2017 The Prescription for Society The biggest problem within the realm of pharmaceuticals themselves is the belief held by people that prescription drugs are not dangerous. In order to understand the use and abuse of prescription drugs, the observations of commercializing and glorifying the industry must be taken into account to realize why they are harmful to society as a whole. According to the National Institute of Drug Abuse, “Misuse of prescription drugs means taking a medication in a manner or dose other than prescribed; taking somebody else’s prescription even if, for a legitimate medical complaint, such as pain; or taking a medication to feel euphoria.” This problem is complex

According to results from the 2010 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), an estimated 2.4 million Americans used prescription drugs non medically for the first time within the past year. This statistic averages to approximately 6,600 new people per day who are taking prescription drugs that were not prescribed to them, or are not needed to treat a serious condition anymore. More than one-half of the 2.4 million people taking prescription drugs for the first time are women, ,and about a third were aged 12-17. Prescription drug abuse is highest among young adults, ages 18-25. According to the NSDUH the most commonly abused prescription drugs are opiods, CNS depressants, and stimulants.

After the 28-day program, patients may elect to go to a "half-way house." This enables the addicts to reintroduce themselves to mainstream society while still maintaining the structured living environment. After successfully completing the stay at the halfway house, patients move on to reestablishing themselves in society. These patients may continue to attend a 12-step program to maintain their hard won recovery.

Prescription drug abuse is a modern-day disease. In an estimate, over six million American have abused prescription medication. However, there is no completely accurate way to measure this abuse. The number of people who have died is important, but the fact that many people suffer from addiction to prescription drugs is. Negative effects such as torn apart families, destroyed lives, and deaths are all results of Opioid overdoses. The question is why do people take opioids and what are they? According to the National Institute of Drug Abuse “Opioid are drugs formulated to replicate the pain reducing properties of opium. They include both painkillers such as morphine, oxycodone, or hydrocodone prescribed by doctors for chronic pain, as well

"Prescription drugs are the number-one drug problem that we face today," says David Rotenberg, executive director of the adolescent treatment center at the nonprofit Caron Foundation. "They are more widely prescribed, more widely available, and more widely abused by adolescents than they have ever been before."(DiConsiglio, 1) Abuse of prescription drugs is one of the fastest growing problems for young adults in the U.S. today. It is a concerning problem because of prescription drug’s widespread availability and little known negative side effects. Prescription drugs are being abused by many young adults and college students. This research

Working in the addiction field, I get to see foremost how addiction affects people. Watching these men and women come into treatment broken, damaged, and scared, it is difficult to see. When I look at these women who come into the program where I work, I see a piece of me in them all. I too have been where they are at. A majority of patients that come into these programs are seeking help from opiate addiction. Over the past few years, treatment centers have expanded due to the demand to help opiate abusers. It has definitely become an epidemic over the years, but why? Research shows that when doctors started to overly prescribe narcotic pain medication, the rate for heroin users rose over the years. Prescription drugs play a major role

Known for his hit song “Thrift Shop,” Ben Haggerty, recognized by the public as Macklemore, occasionally strays from the upbeat, catchy music about sex and partying that can be found on our radios to serious topics such as gay rights with “Same Love.” Macklemore pairs with Ariana DeBoo in his new album This Unruly Mess I’ve Made to create the song “Drug Dealer,” which focuses on the problem of prescription drug abuse in America. According to CNN, drugs have been the leading cause of death in our country since 2009, surpassing even car accidents and shootings (Christensen & Hernandez, 2016). In “Drug Dealer,” Macklemore uses provocative, detailed lyrics about the effects of prescription drugs and his own experience with drug addiction to persuade

While addiction is a crippling disease that affects more than 20 million people, it is also a multi-billion dollar company. Prescription pill addiction affects more than 2 million people a year and has killed more than 200,000. The United States federal government benefit and profit from prescription pill addictions.

Even though caffeine is so widely used, there aren’t many problematic uses for it according to health professionals. Caffeine isn’t

Caffeine has many negative effects on humans, such as increased heart rate (Lane, J.D., 2002), depression (Goldstein, 2008), and addiction to this “drug.” You may be asking yourself, “What is caffeine?” Well, caffeine is actually a stimulant (Barone, Roberts, 2008) that is found in beverages such as tea, coffee, and soft drinks. In fact, caffeine is the highest grossing and most used stimulant in the United States (Barone, Roberts, 2008). It is estimated that 85% of adults living in the United States consume caffeine on a daily basis (Barone, Roberts, 2008). That means for every 100 adults, 85 of them have had a drink that contained caffeine on any given day. One reason caffeine is so widely available compared to other stimulants is

Please pause for a moment, and picture in your mind the washed away remnants of what used to be a small city; it is rather difficult to recognize from all the earthquake rubble and debris that there once was a town here. Bits and pieces of what used to be homes are now scattered from one end of the view to the other. A gloomy haze of dust, smoke and ash has recently enveloped over the entire countryside. Sounds of screaming, yelling and crying are bombarding one’s hearing senses; a smell of unbelievable human decaying stench is so over whelming, the odors stimulate the gag reflex and tear ducts to produce endless retching and a cleansing wash of foul air from one’s eyes. Hungry ownerless dogs are

All throughout the world on the daily, people are consuming caffeine in the form of coffee, tea, or hot chocolate as a pastime and mostly within a social setting. These people gather in what is called a café, which has been a tradition since 1689 when the first coffeehouse was opened in Paris. However, they’re failing to realize that their body is being poisoned by a psychoactive drug. The main purpose of caffeine is to eliminate fatigue and enhance mental performance for those who need the extra boost in the morning. This has resulted in people consuming an amount higher than the daily recommended amount of caffeine because the FDA has failed to regulate it. According to a research done by the Scientist magazine, caffeine is the greatest drug consumed in the world today. Because of this substance, people are getting addicted, developing depression, along with anxiety, and eventually dying. Spend your time researching online, and take note of how young, healthy people are unexpectedly dying from overdosing on caffeine or from a heart attack. The problem with society is the misconception regarding caffeine as a drug, several ignore it and decide to do whatever they want. Because at the end of the day, it's ultimately their decision to do what they want with their body. That doesn’t mean the public can’t be informed on the subject of their own personal safety. Maybe they would be persuaded to cut down on their intake of caffeine, which would prevent this mess from happening in