Opiate painkillers, benzodiazepine tranquilizers, and stimulants can be safely and effectively used, but when taken other than prescribed they carry significant risks. Indeed, prescription drug abuse is the nation’s fastest growing drug problem, so much so that the CDC has classified it as an epidemic.
The world is being over prescribed medications. Especially narcotics and other addicting drugs. I chose this topic because I am very interested in medicine. I also have experience with prescription addiction. People are dying in third world countries not able to obtain simple antibiotics. While developed countries are flooded by addiction and plenty of pills to go around for any given symptom. I am not saying people do not need medicine. I am simply saying that we have created a pill for every possible symptom someone can have sick or not. It has become “normal” to take medication for any given reason. If I have any aches or pain my first thought is I should take something for it. It is interesting to think about. Am I taking the medication because I really need it? Or am I taking it because that’s what I have been taught to do?
In 2010 enough prescription painkillers were prescribed to medicate every American adult around-the-clock for a month. Although most of these pills were prescribed for a medical purpose, many ended up in the hands who misused or abused them.
More people die of drug overdoses than by any other cause of accidental death, with the majority, about 15 million people, dying each year from prescribed opioids. One reason for this is that as tolerance develops to the pain relieving effects of the opiate, users take higher and higher doses to achieve the same pain relief. But the users’ respiratory system doesn’t develop the same level of tolerance as the dosages get higher. Eventually, the user is on such a high dose that breathing can slow down to the point that it stops. This scenario is common in opiate dependence in part because the user may be sedated and confused, unable to monitor dosages properly and likely to make medication errors. For the first time since records have been kept, more people are dying of accidental drug overdose than in car accidents.
Prescription drug abuse is huge problem among adolescences and young adults in the culture I live in. It is not viewed as “acceptable” but is very common among the middle class. The availability of prescription drugs is high and they are easy to obtain. Growing up, in the suburbs of Utah, I was taught not to put ANY mind altering drugs into the body. I was raised LDS with the belief your body is a temple and you should treat it like one. A lot of emphasis is put on “saying no to drugs” and is taught throughout years of school. My parents sat me down at a young age and talked to me about not using drugs. When I heard the word “drug” I thought of heroin or cocaine, not a legal drug that is prescribed to you by a doctor.
My mother takes several prescription medications for reasons from mental health, pain, anxiety and other health conditions. Since they are prescriptions it is viewed as okay as long as they are “needed”. At a young age I saw this and was taught it is okay to take prescribed medications. I began going to the doctor for various reasons such as anxiety, depression and pain. I started to obtain more and more prescriptions thinking I needed them. This lead to a severe prescription addiction.
This is a worldwide epidemic. There are several countries across the world expressing the growing concern of prescription medications. The United States is number one in the world in prescription addiction. Canada has released a recent ten year plan to reduce the rate of prescription addiction.
In the Canadian culture Oxycotin is very popular among the adolescence and young adults. It has flooded the streets. It is used orally, snorted and injected. It is cheaper to go to Canada to buy these opioid painkillers. Canada has different laws then we do here in the United States with medications. In Canada you can buy codeine over the counter. Here it can only be obtained by prescription from a doctor. It is also easier to obtain prescription drugs in Canada. You can drive over the border go into a pharmacy and ask them for prescription pills such as Loratab or Percocet, even though it is illegal they will usually sell them to you. If you went in to a pharmacy in the United States and asked them to sell you some pain medications you would most likely be arrested. Since you can by codeine over the counter it is popular for adolescence to abuse them. Since it is a over the counter medication it is not seen as a “drug” by many of their peers.
In 2012, about 1 million youth, aged 15 to 24 years, reported having used a psychoactive pharmaceutical in the past 12 months. About 210,000 of these youth also reported having abused them.
Canada is the world’s second largest per capita consumer of prescription opioids after The United States. The International Narcotics Control Board reports that Canadians’ use of prescription opioids Increased by 203% between 2000 and 2010, an increase steeper than in the U.S. Some First Nations in Canada have declared a Community crisis owing to the prevalence of the harms associated with prescription drugs. Demand for prescription opioid related treatment is also increasing. From 2004 to 2009 in Ontario, admissions to treatment programs for prescription opioids doubled. In 2005-2006, 10.6% of individuals seeking addiction treatment in Ontario did so for prescription opioids; by 2010-2011, this percentage had increased to 18.6%
Canada has a needle safe program. Basically you go there they inject you with your drugs using clean syringes and monitoring the dose. It sounds bizarre but is actually a realistic idea.
With very conservative estimates, it is predicted that the addition of each supervised injection facility (up-to a maximum of three) in Montreal will on average prevent 11 cases of HIV and 65 cases of HCV each year. As a result, there is a net cost saving of CDN$0.686 million (HIV) and CDN$0.8 million (HCV) for each additional supervised injection site each year. This translates into a net average benefit-cost ratio of 1.21: 1 for both HIV and HCV
I was addicted to prescription medications from the age 15 to 22. I am currently 27. It was so easy to go into the doctor and manipulate him in to giving me anything I wanted. I was taking so many medications combined that contradicted each other. Amphetamines, benzodiazepines, opioid painkillers and muscle relaxers. The United States is the only country that advertises prescriptions to the public. You see a commercial on TV, go in and tell your doctor that you think you need it. Pharmaceutical companies are taking over the medical industry. It is sad that doctors will so easily hand out these deadly medications to anyone that asks for them.
I think in a “Ideal world” we would not need to put so many toxic things in our bodies. Only using what is necessary in the case of life and death. I would like to see Open supervised injection facilities in the United States. There are so many opinions and beliefs that would go against this. It comes down to statistics and safety. Having places that IV drug users can go and dispose of their needles properly. Slow down the spread of disease. We can’t stop drug use but we can make effort to save lives with proper facilities.
Having a pain management doctor prescribe pain medications any higher then Loratabs or Percocet. Doctors would have to have special licensing to prescribe strong pain killers not a MD. That would make it so people have to be really checked, to see if they actually need the medication. Going to see a psychologist to get anti-anxiety medication instead of the M.D. Lowering the number of pills being prescribing and doses being given.
Have Narcan(Naloxone) available to the public in every state. Be able to obtain it without a prescription. Train people how to properly use it. Naloxone is a drug used to counter the effects of opioid overdose, for example heroin or morphine overdose. Naloxone is specifically used to counteract life-threatening depression of the central nervous system and respiratory system. Many lives could be saved by having this available over the counter. In 2010, nearly 60 percent of the drug overdose deaths (22,134) involved pharmaceutical drugs. Opioid analgesics, such as oxycodone, hydrocodone, and methadone, were involved in about 3 of every 4 pharmaceutical overdose deaths (16,651), confirming the predominant role opioid analgesics play in drug overdose deaths.
at http://www.wnd.com/2014/02/70-million-americans-taking-mind-altering-drugs/#lgsVUtsfvd78htrt.99
http://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2013/p0220_drug_overdose_deaths.html
http://www.cdc.gov/homeandrecreationalsafety/rxbrief/
http://stopoverdose.org/faq.htm
http://www.substanceabusepolicy.com/content/8/1/25
http://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/principles-drug-addiction-treatment-research-based-guide-third-edition/principles-effective-treatment
Dell, C.A., Roberts, G.,
Kilty J., Taylor, K., Daschuk, M., Hopkins, C., & Dell, D. (2012). Researching Prescription Drug Misuse among First
Nations in Canada: Starting from a Health Promotion Framework.
Substance Abuse: Research and Treatment
Health Canada. (2012).
Canadian Alcohol and Drug Use Monitoring Survey: Summary of Results for 2011
2011_supplementary_tables_en.pdf Fischer, B., & Argento, E. (2012) Prescription opioid related misuse, harms, diversion and interventions in Canada: A review.Pain Physician
Dhalla IA, Mamdani MM, Gomes T. Juurlink DN. Clustering of opioid prescribing and opioid-related mortality among family physicians in Ontario. Canadian Family Med. 2011;57:e92–e96.
Swedlow A, Ireland J, Johnson G. Prescribing patterns of schedule II opioids in California Workers’ Compensation. Cal. Workers’ Compensation Update. 2011 Mar:1–12. Available from URL: http://www.cwci.org/research.html.
The world is being over prescribed medications. Especially narcotics and other addicting drugs. I chose this topic because I am very interested in medicine. I also have experience with prescription addiction. People are dying in third world countries not able to obtain simple antibiotics. While developed countries are flooded by addiction and plenty of pills to go around for any given symptom. I am not saying people do not need medicine. I am simply saying that we have created a pill for every possible symptom someone can have sick or not. It has become “normal” to take medication for any given reason. If I have any aches or pain my first thought is I should take something for it. It is interesting to think about. Am I taking the medication because I really need it? Or am I taking it because that’s what I have been taught to do?
In 2010 enough prescription painkillers were prescribed to medicate every American adult around-the-clock for a month. Although most of these pills were prescribed for a medical purpose, many ended up in the hands who misused or abused them.
More people die of drug overdoses than by any other cause of accidental death, with the majority, about 15 million people, dying each year from prescribed opioids. One reason for this is that as tolerance develops to the pain relieving effects of the opiate, users take higher and higher doses to achieve the same pain relief. But the users’ respiratory system doesn’t develop the same level of tolerance as the dosages get higher. Eventually, the user is on such a high dose that breathing can slow down to the point that it stops. This scenario is common in opiate dependence in part because the user may be sedated and confused, unable to monitor dosages properly and likely to make medication errors. For the first time since records have been kept, more people are dying of accidental drug overdose than in car accidents.
Prescription drug abuse is huge problem among adolescences and young adults in the culture I live in. It is not viewed as “acceptable” but is very common among the middle class. The availability of prescription drugs is high and they are easy to obtain. Growing up, in the suburbs of Utah, I was taught not to put ANY mind altering drugs into the body. I was raised LDS with the belief your body is a temple and you should treat it like one. A lot of emphasis is put on “saying no to drugs” and is taught throughout years of school. My parents sat me down at a young age and talked to me about not using drugs. When I heard the word “drug” I thought of heroin or cocaine, not a legal drug that is prescribed to you by a doctor.
My mother takes several prescription medications for reasons from mental health, pain, anxiety and other health conditions. Since they are prescriptions it is viewed as okay as long as they are “needed”. At a young age I saw this and was taught it is okay to take prescribed medications. I began going to the doctor for various reasons such as anxiety, depression and pain. I started to obtain more and more prescriptions thinking I needed them. This lead to a severe prescription addiction.
This is a worldwide epidemic. There are several countries across the world expressing the growing concern of prescription medications. The United States is number one in the world in prescription addiction. Canada has released a recent ten year plan to reduce the rate of prescription addiction.
In the Canadian culture Oxycotin is very popular among the adolescence and young adults. It has flooded the streets. It is used orally, snorted and injected. It is cheaper to go to Canada to buy these opioid painkillers. Canada has different laws then we do here in the United States with medications. In Canada you can buy codeine over the counter. Here it can only be obtained by prescription from a doctor. It is also easier to obtain prescription drugs in Canada. You can drive over the border go into a pharmacy and ask them for prescription pills such as Loratab or Percocet, even though it is illegal they will usually sell them to you. If you went in to a pharmacy in the United States and asked them to sell you some pain medications you would most likely be arrested. Since you can by codeine over the counter it is popular for adolescence to abuse them. Since it is a over the counter medication it is not seen as a “drug” by many of their peers.
In 2012, about 1 million youth, aged 15 to 24 years, reported having used a psychoactive pharmaceutical in the past 12 months. About 210,000 of these youth also reported having abused them.
Canada is the world’s second largest per capita consumer of prescription opioids after The United States. The International Narcotics Control Board reports that Canadians’ use of prescription opioids Increased by 203% between 2000 and 2010, an increase steeper than in the U.S. Some First Nations in Canada have declared a Community crisis owing to the prevalence of the harms associated with prescription drugs. Demand for prescription opioid related treatment is also increasing. From 2004 to 2009 in Ontario, admissions to treatment programs for prescription opioids doubled. In 2005-2006, 10.6% of individuals seeking addiction treatment in Ontario did so for prescription opioids; by 2010-2011, this percentage had increased to 18.6%
Canada has a needle safe program. Basically you go there they inject you with your drugs using clean syringes and monitoring the dose. It sounds bizarre but is actually a realistic idea.
With very conservative estimates, it is predicted that the addition of each supervised injection facility (up-to a maximum of three) in Montreal will on average prevent 11 cases of HIV and 65 cases of HCV each year. As a result, there is a net cost saving of CDN$0.686 million (HIV) and CDN$0.8 million (HCV) for each additional supervised injection site each year. This translates into a net average benefit-cost ratio of 1.21: 1 for both HIV and HCV
I was addicted to prescription medications from the age 15 to 22. I am currently 27. It was so easy to go into the doctor and manipulate him in to giving me anything I wanted. I was taking so many medications combined that contradicted each other. Amphetamines, benzodiazepines, opioid painkillers and muscle relaxers. The United States is the only country that advertises prescriptions to the public. You see a commercial on TV, go in and tell your doctor that you think you need it. Pharmaceutical companies are taking over the medical industry. It is sad that doctors will so easily hand out these deadly medications to anyone that asks for them.
I think in a “Ideal world” we would not need to put so many toxic things in our bodies. Only using what is necessary in the case of life and death. I would like to see Open supervised injection facilities in the United States. There are so many opinions and beliefs that would go against this. It comes down to statistics and safety. Having places that IV drug users can go and dispose of their needles properly. Slow down the spread of disease. We can’t stop drug use but we can make effort to save lives with proper facilities.
Having a pain management doctor prescribe pain medications any higher then Loratabs or Percocet. Doctors would have to have special licensing to prescribe strong pain killers not a MD. That would make it so people have to be really checked, to see if they actually need the medication. Going to see a psychologist to get anti-anxiety medication instead of the M.D. Lowering the number of pills being prescribing and doses being given.
Have Narcan(Naloxone) available to the public in every state. Be able to obtain it without a prescription. Train people how to properly use it. Naloxone is a drug used to counter the effects of opioid overdose, for example heroin or morphine overdose. Naloxone is specifically used to counteract life-threatening depression of the central nervous system and respiratory system. Many lives could be saved by having this available over the counter. In 2010, nearly 60 percent of the drug overdose deaths (22,134) involved pharmaceutical drugs. Opioid analgesics, such as oxycodone, hydrocodone, and methadone, were involved in about 3 of every 4 pharmaceutical overdose deaths (16,651), confirming the predominant role opioid analgesics play in drug overdose deaths.
at http://www.wnd.com/2014/02/70-million-americans-taking-mind-altering-drugs/#lgsVUtsfvd78htrt.99
http://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2013/p0220_drug_overdose_deaths.html
http://www.cdc.gov/homeandrecreationalsafety/rxbrief/
http://stopoverdose.org/faq.htm
http://www.substanceabusepolicy.com/content/8/1/25
http://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/principles-drug-addiction-treatment-research-based-guide-third-edition/principles-effective-treatment
Dell, C.A., Roberts, G.,
Kilty J., Taylor, K., Daschuk, M., Hopkins, C., & Dell, D. (2012). Researching Prescription Drug Misuse among First
Nations in Canada: Starting from a Health Promotion Framework.
Substance Abuse: Research and Treatment
Health Canada. (2012).
Canadian Alcohol and Drug Use Monitoring Survey: Summary of Results for 2011
2011_supplementary_tables_en.pdf Fischer, B., & Argento, E. (2012) Prescription opioid related misuse, harms, diversion and interventions in Canada: A review.Pain Physician
Dhalla IA, Mamdani MM, Gomes T. Juurlink DN. Clustering of opioid prescribing and opioid-related mortality among family physicians in Ontario. Canadian Family Med. 2011;57:e92–e96.
Swedlow A, Ireland J, Johnson G. Prescribing patterns of schedule II opioids in California Workers’ Compensation. Cal. Workers’ Compensation Update. 2011 Mar:1–12. Available from URL: http://www.cwci.org/research.html.