It was June 2011 and I was sitting next to my mom on a plane on route to the Bahamas. As the flight attendant finished her safety procedures she stated that movies would be accessible on the monitor in our seats. As I was flipping through the selection I saw a movie called Limitless, which is about a struggling author whose life starts to take a negative turn as his financial situation plummets and his motivation to succeed subsides. When a man with a “smart pill”, which enables him to analyze information at a quicker rate approaches him, he takes the pill and results in his success financially and well-being. As a student of St. Lawrence University it is not uncommon to walk around Owen D. Young library and hear numerous students state they …show more content…
In a recent New York Times article, Workers Seeking Productivity in a Pill are Abusing A.D.H.D Drugs, Alan Schwartz addressed the issues of this phenomenon carrying over to the workplace, as college graduates continue this trend. Living in a country that is driven by competition and gaining advantages, workers are feeling the burden, but could this reoccurrence result in addiction and an overall result in a negative cause for society? Using John Stuart Mill’s, On Liberty, and Karl Marx, Selected Writings, I will use their theories, combined with my own analysis, to identify when these prescription pills should be considered a troubling trend, and when they should …show more content…
The rights that separate humans from animals. As Marx points out in his Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts, private property deprives human beings of self-worth and identity, and as the relationship between worker and his work increases, he becomes a “slave” to his work. “The worker becomes poorer the more wealth he produces, the more his production increases in power and extent. The worker becomes a cheaper commodity the more commodities he produces” and “this fact simply indicates that the object which labor produces, is an alien thing, an independent power of the producer” (Marx 59). While considering Marx’s point, I would like to applaud him for bringing up this point, but respectfully disagree. It is the 21st century and whether you like it or not, competition among peers is present in school, sports, and especially in career searches. Taking these pills is not used to get “high” as Schwartz points out, but simply to get “hired”. We live in a different time period, and if Marx were alive I believe he would retract his statements about alienation from our labor. Our labor is what allows us to enjoy other possessions and be financially stable, and without hard work and motivation it is nearly impossible to thrive in our economic and social
This intimate relationship between man and nature, his activity and the objects of nature, is the ‘appropriate’ relationship because worker is not capable of creating without nature, that is, without the sensual external world. Hence, the world is the material into which man invests his labor, through which he produces things, and without it he cannot live. However, in a capitalist society, such relationship does not exist and man is alienated from nature, from the products of his activity or work. Under capitalism, workers produce for the market rather than for their own use or enrichment. According to Marx, the object produced by labor in modern society stands as an alien being to the worker. His labor is embodied in the product he created, and this product is an objectification of labor which represents a loss to the worker, as well as servitude to the object. Hence, alienation occurs when worker lacks control over the products of his labor. Additionally, during the process of production, man’s labor are seen as much an object as the physical material being worked upon, since labor is a demand in modern society, which can be bought or sold. The more objects the worker produces, the fewer he can personally possess, and therefore the greater is his loss. For instance, in
Macklemore’s latest single, “Kevin” voices the struggle lower class Americans go through with overusing prescription medication. Drug use and abuse has become a widespread issue within the United States. One of its most troubling aspects being the abuse of pharmaceutical and prescription drugs, painkillers raising the most concern. Drugs such as Oxycontin, Ambien, and Xanax are being prescribed by doctors and given to the public and then being misused, causing more harm than good. ADD SOURCE THAT EXPLAINS THE MANIFESTATION OF THIS. Barbara Ehrenreich, an American author and sociologist explores this very problem in her book, Nickel and Dimed. When talking about a worker’s use of medication, Ehrenreich claims that, “Unfortunately, the commercial tells us, we workers can exert the same kind of authority over our painkillers that our bosses exert over us. If Tylenol doesn’t want to work for more than four hours, you just fire its ass and switch to Aleve”(25). In other words, Ehrenreich is stating how the media is pushing drugs onto the working class and through the use of personification she illustrates how workers identify themselves with the medications they are taking. Employees will opt for the most efficient medication in order to be efficient
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.
Commercialized on TV as the only solution to our numerous problems, Big Pharma preys on people who struggle through life. Although seemingly meant to heal, pharmaceutical drugs have destroyed countless American lives instead because gullible patients rush to their doctor demanding prescriptions. Want to lose weight? Give me a pill. Want more intense sexual encounters? I need a pill. Want to grow longer, shinier hair? Hey, I’ll just pop a pill. Although some medical conditions do require medication, not every case of discomfort should be treated with highly addictive prescription meds nor should those drugs be trafficked via commercials that target a hypochondriacal nation of couch potatoes too lazy to put forth the time and effort to prevent disease. Instead, far too many Americans simply find a quick fix at their local pharmacy. These prescriptions lead to addiction and in the end death. Therefore, if I could take away any one invention from mankind it would be the crass commercialization of pharmaceuticals.
Opioid addiction with prescribed and illegal substances has of late become a topic of concern within the United States. With this topic in the face of individual liberties, one must question the moral and legal obligations of society and of the government to control this outbreak of addiction. With one view, the side that would be in favor of Plato, one could argue that the use of any substance illegally is morally wrong and that people waste their lives if they even try opioids for something other than their intended purposes. On the other side, with the view of John Stuart Mill, one could argue that while the use of opioids could be considered wrong, government and society are not at right to prohibit individuals from using opioids, given several underlying assumptions. Of these two views, I argue that, while I agree partially with Plato, I agree more with Mill’s view that individuals should be allowed to use opioids if they so wish.
In the modern age of technological and medical advancements such as organ transplants and robotic limbs, Americans have developed unrealistic expectations about prescription drugs. The false belief that the right pill in the right dosage can cure all has led to a national epidemic: over prescription. Since the 1970s, the average American’s expenditure on prescription drugs has doubled because not only are new treatments for almost every ailment now available, but they are also aggressively advertised on television, the internet, and social media. At the same time that the American population confronts health issues associated with rising age, obesity, and stress levels, prescription drugs promise a quick fix for everything from depression to acne to insomnia leading to a one pill fix all.
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
Pharmaceutical drug dependency is not a new craze sweeping the nation. Although it has progressed, it is something that has been a noticeable issue since the early twentieth century. For starters, there is a pill for everything; pregnancy, being over-weight, pain, sneezing, and much more. When you have a variety like that, it’s hard not to take the easy way out. The latest generations of prescription drugs compensate conditions such as depression, gynecological disorders, hyperactivity, impotence, sleeping problems and more. We are waist deep in a pill culture. According to Tennent, a reason for this up-rise in patients being so eager to take up prescription drugs is that new and more sophisticated drugs have reduced the severity of accompanying side-effects. (Tennent) However, this is a gamble and something one could not be sure of. There are medications prescribed for less
Historically speaking, according to Narconon (2015), the issue of prescription drug abuse began in the 1800’s when consumers could self-prescribe medications such as cocaine and morphine. In the 1900’s, the Pure Food and Drug and Harrison Narcotic Tax acts were put into place as measures to control the sale and distribution of these substances (Narconon International, 2015). Today, the prescription drug problem continues to be a growing issue that has many consequences in our society.
Prescription pain medications are supposed to improve the health and well-being of an individual. Oxycontin, an opioid drug, is meant to help people manage their pain symptoms; however, many people are unaware that there is a danger of abuse of receiving drugs prescribed by their physicians. The essays “How to Create an Addiction” and “Erin Daly: OxyWatchdog” by Cynthia Andrzejczyk explore the problem of prescription drugs in the United States. Since 1999, prescription drug epidemic in the United States has been killing 15,000 people every year from overdosing (Andrzejczyk 275). People have been losing their loved ones due to a culprit meant to help. The Pharma Purdue company who created the Oxycontin was responsible for starting the
Prescription drug abuse, now known as the “silent epidemic,” is spreading rapidly in the United States, so who’s to blame? This essay will argue that oftentimes, pharmaceutical companies are responsible for luring the opioid dependent population, and more often than not, causing their deaths. It is their greed that over powers the true meaning of medicine. One would think that millions of dollars in profits would be enough. However, considering it is a multibillion dollar industry, apparently not. Selfishness shown by bribery, false advertisements and “the Domino Effect,” will reveal that they are truly guilty.
In the article “Young, Assured, and Playing Pharmacist to Friends,” it describes different types of people in different situations from different places all participating in the new craze of self-medicating. All of the people described were young and confident in their ability to know what prescription pills were best suited for their problem at that time. These self-medicating young people trade pills in exchange for other pills, and often times take them without a doctor’s permission, and justified it with the use of the Internet. This pattern of pharmaceutical sharing reflects the larger medicalized culture of pursuing the better self by showing how and why the younger generation self medicates. In the article one woman even describes that she feels that she knows more about what she is talking about, pertaining to what prescription drugs she should take, than a doctor does.
`In this essay, I have shown that drug tests are not an invasion of privacy, but a useful tool for companies to ensure employee character quality. Furthermore, drug tests should be required by all companies in order to discourage the use of drugs, which are detrimental to personal and societal life. While I would not advocate that companies should be force to do this, It would be utterly wrong to force companies to not require drug
People who use medications often incorporate those drugs into their life in a variety of ways. For some, it is a life-saving that must be used in order to live. But for others, such as my informant, Amanda, some drugs that are not necessary for life have become equated as a “staple” item. Staple items by definition are “a main or important element of something, especially of a diet, such as bread, milk, etc.,” (dictionary.com). However, in her life, she has come to define the pain relieving drug, Advil, as “staple” for her health. Thus, the goal of my paper is to trace what caused Advil to become tantamount with necessary nourishment. Through the analysis of Amanda’s experience with pain, I will examine how both models of health are enacted as she takes Advil, which have come to change the biomedical intended purpose to a “staple” of life. To further my analysis, I will be referencing Joseph Dumit’s book, Drugs for Life: How Pharmaceutical Companies Define Our Health, Mol and Law’s paper, “Embodied Action, Enacted Bodies: The Example of Hypoglycemia,” and Clara Han’s chapter, “Labor Instability and Community Mental Health: The Work of Pharmaceuticals in Santiago, Chile.”
Marx’s model of private property views it as means of production creating a division of labor. In his theory, Marx takes a look and how private property, along with wealth, are funneled into the hands of the few leaving the ordinary worker unable to gain wealth from private property. The outcome of Marx’s principle can be seen especially in the last 30 years in the US with the increase of inequality and access to wealth to unprecedented numbers (USA 11).