Prescription Drugs And The United States

Here in America, there is an ongoing tragedy ceaselessly unfolding right before our eyes. Beyond the calamities of gun violence, the loss of innocent lives through ruthless crimes and deadly motor vehicle accidents, there is a crisis occurring in the very homes of many Americans. There is a proceeding addiction to the pill bottles hidden behind bathroom mirrors, needles poking through the surface of fragile skin to get a “fix”, and prescriptions being written left and right with the intention to help but the potential to kill. Here in America, over 115 people die every single day from overdosing on opioids and this is a reality that has been nothing short of deadly since as early as 1990.

    There has been an increase in heroin and opioid abuse in america. It has been affecting everyone and the incoming generation greatly. The use of pain reliever drugs is often the leading cause to abusing opioids and/or heroin. These pain relievers are often addictive and once people are addicted and cut off from them they begin searching for other ways to satisfy their cravings. The prescription drugs are often easily dispensed to people so it’s easier to access. This easy access makes it easier for people to get a prescription, leading to a higher risk of addiction.

Nonmedical Prescription-Opioid abuse in the United States and Michigan has continued to rise, and with it, the devastating results that accompany it. Research has shown that increased opioid abuse leads to an increase in overdose and death, increases in crime and increased incidences of costly blood borne diseases like HIV, AIDS and Hepatitis. It also leads to increased societal costs, such as an increasing number of children in foster care and increased healthcare, workplace and criminal justice costs that can decimate communities and local budgets. Many communities were caught with their heads in the sand, as they were overwhelmed by the influx of prescription opioids into their communities. When policies were finally implemented to curb the amount of prescription opioids in their communities, rates of heroin use (also an opioid) began to skyrocket and people began realizing they had an opioid epidemic on their hands. How to combat this heroin epidemic has been the topic of many debates. This article will attempt to examine the relationship of nonmedical prescription-opioid abuse and its effects on heroin use.

Prescribed medication is on the rise in the United States. Particularly among the elderly as they are more inclined to be taking medications. According to the textbook, about thirty percent of people who are sixty-five or older take eight or more prescriptions daily. (Snyder, 62) With that comes an increase in medication misuse and abuse. The difference between the two has to do with the intentions or motivations the person has. Medication misuse is an unintentional or willful use of a medication in a way that differs from prescribed dose or intent. (Snyder, 61) The first example found in the textbook includes taking several unused antibiotics for strep throat from last years prescription, thinking the sore throat is strep throat. The second example is a person who takes a double dose of Tylenol, thinking the higher dose will clear the symptoms faster. The last example from the book is failing to take entire course of antibiotics prescribed for them. (Snyder, 61) On the other hand, medication abuse is deliberately taking a drug for non-medical reason. For example, taking a prescription medicine that was prescribed to someone else, taking the medicine in a different form such as snorting it, or taking a certain medicine with the intent to get high. Both medication abuse and misuse in the elderly population is of concern on the grounds that it can bring mental and physical debilitation. Older people misusing or abusing medications puts them at greater danger and may lead to

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.

Drug abuse and addiction remain large and persistent problems. Nationally, addiction and abuse of all substances costs the economy an estimated $600 billion dollars annually. Indeed, over the past decade, illicit drug use appears to be steady or rising (2011 National Survey on Drug Use and Health; DHHS). From this we see that prescription and non-prescription opioid use is particularly problematic. For example, prescription pain reliever misuse has remained consistently high for most of the last decade and makes up the largest portion of misuse of prescription drugs (Figure 1). In addition people who report using heroin within the last year has increased by over 50% since 2001 (Figure 2).

According to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention 44 people die each day in the United States of America due to an overdose of a prescription painkiller (“Joining the Fight”, n.d.). A staggering 2.1 million people in the United States suffer from substance abuse disorders and the number of people using opioids for nonmedical uses is continuing to rise (Volkow, 2014). Who is to blame for these outrageous numbers? I believe that the patient and the pharmaceutical companies are to blame for this on-growing problem. Some of the largest contributing factors to these growing statistics is that the pharmaceutical companies have very aggressive marketing of the medicines, which in turn leads to a rising number of prescriptions written for

Prescription drug abuse and misuse is becoming a major public health issue in the United

The purpose of the film was to show how pharmaceuticals have effected Americans in a negative way. The United states represents five percent of the world’s population but consumes more than fifty percent of the world’s pharmaceuticals. This has caused 106,000 American’s to die from prescriptions drugs a year. People are becoming addicted to prescription drugs that doctors are writing a prescription for such as narcotics, opioids, and painkillers. These medicines are originally used to help with serious medical conditions but they are highly addictive. People start off with using the medication in a positive way, then end up taking them even after their medical condition is no longer there. That’s where we start to see an outrages number in

People deaths from heroin overdoses have grow by five times between 2001 and 2013. Nearly 50 percent of the prison inmates in the US were addicted to drugs or alcohol. Many of the illegal drugs come from Mexico, where the drug cartels make over $50 billion each year from their business. The National Association Of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) concerned with the growing use of pejorative terms to describe the estimated 11 million undocumented people living in the United States. In America a total of 68% of drug users are in North America.

Drug abuse has been an ongoing issue throughout the United States. The misuse of drugs impacts every culture, age group, gender, race and social class of people. In 2012, approximately twenty-two million individuals throughout the United States were either abusing or had an addiction to alcohol and drugs (Friedman, 2014a, p. 385). Out of the twenty-two million people, four million individuals turn into being dependent or abusing marijuana (Friedman, 2014b, p. 387). Furthermore, two million were dependent on OxyContin and Vicodin, which are opioid prescription medicines (Friedman, 2014c, p. 387).

History is always repeating itself to show how the world changed with drug abusers by adding federal and state laws. In the 19th century A.D., active substances of morphine, laudanum, and cocaine were introduced (Drug 2015). The physicians prescribed and completely unregulated the drugs freely to the offenders (Drug 2015). During the American Civil War, wounded veterans were using morphine as a freely drug when they arrived home (Drug 2015). In the United States by the early 1900s, it was estimated that 250,000 were addicted to drugs (Drug 2015). The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, was the first national drug law that required labeling for Opium and other types of medicines (Drug 2015). Supreme Courts made it illegal for the doctors to prescribe

Communities and workplaces can access various Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) initiatives and programs to prevent prescription drug misuse and abuse. SAMHSA participates in the Drug Enforcement Administration’s National Take-Back Initiative; the goal is to provide safe, secure, and environmentally responsible methods of disposing of prescription drugs. The general public can acquire education about the potential for abuse and trafficking of available medications such as pain medications that persisted in a hospice patient’s home that already passed. Residents of communities should have the right to report abuse incidences, drug trafficking and overdose incidences without consequences of legal responsibility.

The legal availabilities of drugs make drugs easily obtainable. Once being legalized, drugs will be accessible to all drug users since drug users legally obtain drugs from personnel who are trained to prescribe an adequate amount of drugs for patients, which can be problematic (Rangel 288). The rate of addiction will be likely to skyrocket when drugs are available because with “legal obtained drug”, people will take advantage of it causing addiction (Rangel 288). Moreover, beside the legal drugs, there is still a

Drug addiction in the United States is an increasing problem, totaling at about 65,000 deaths in 2016, but who is to blame for this? Do we blame the government for fueling the opioid epidemic? Or Is the victim at fault here? A chronic illness that is characterized by drug seeking, and use that is difficult to stop and control, despite its harmful consequences. Most people, as did I, believe that they are too in control to become addicted to opioids, but the truth is, anyone can become engulfed and trapped by drug addiction.With an increase in opioid deaths and drug addiction, also comes the discrimination of its victims. Drug addicts are often misrepresented, and often denied their rights and human compassion that are needed to overcome this disease, as seen in their demonizing portrayal through the public, the government, and the media.