Essay On Prescription Drug Addiction

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).

“Substance use disorders” or “substance-related disorders” are intended synonymously and are used interchangeably when referring to the broad category of addiction to psychoactive substances. Additionally, the word “drug” should be considered in the context in which it appears and can refer to alcohol specifically and/or other psychoactive substances such as cocaine or heroin etc. Again, this is because of the large overlap within the broader category of substance use and the high prevalence of polysubstance use. For the sake of clarity, “drug” as used in North America to generally refer to any illicit or controlled substance has been avoided. Instead, “medication” will be used to denote a prescribed substance used to treat physical symptoms. However, many legally prescribed medications (such as morphine) can and are abused and have addictive quality, making them just as devastating as “street drugs” or alcohol (Compton & Volkow, 2006).

Millions of people throughout the world are taking drugs on a daily basis. If you were to ask someone why they take prescription drugs, most people would be taking them for the right reason. However, it’s estimated that twenty percent of people in the United States alone have used prescription drugs for non-medical reasons.1 Prescription drug abuse is a serious and growing problem that often goes unnoticed. Abusing these drugs can often lead to addiction and even death. You can develop an addiction to certain drugs that may include: narcotic painkillers, sedatives, tranquilizers, and stimulants.1 Prescription drugs are the most common abused category of drugs, right next to marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and

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.

Many people have developed an addiction due to an injury and which were prescribed painkillers to manage and treat the pain. Prolonged use leads to dependence and once a person is addicted, increasing amounts of drugs are required to prevent feeling of withdrawal. Addiction to painkillers often leads to harder drugs such as heroin due to the black market drug being cheaper. Prescription drugs remain a far deadlier problem and more people abuse prescription medication than cocaine, methamphetamine heroin, MDMA and PCP combined. Drug abuse is ending too many lives too soon and destroying families and communities.

It is very likely that people given prescription medications do not intend to become addicted or to abuse the medication. They simply want to ease their medical problems. There are numerous reasons a person may abuse or become addicted to prescription medications. Many physicians are over-booked and have busy schedules and don’t take enough time with patients, instead they simply write a prescription and send the person on their way. A second reason is that most addictive medications work quickly and effectively, especially painkillers. A third reason is that many people have a subconscious

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.

It's scary to think that we live in a world where drug addiction is a growing epidemic plaguing families on a daily basis. One of the most common drug abuse problems to date is that of addiction to prescription medications, but more specifically opiates. Opiates are used to help treat chronic and severe pain, but the drug can become highly addictive. In recent years, more people have overdosed as a result of prescription medications than both heroin and cocaine combined.

This paper will illustrate several aspects of how drugs affect our lives. Addiction philosophies including the psychology and physiology will be explained in an attempt to describe how drugs affect our bodies both physically and mentally. Secondly, different drug categories types will be covered including: stimulants, depressants, narcotics, hallucinogens, and cannabis. Each of these categories has different addiction potentials and effect levels including withdrawal symptoms. Finally, the abuse of prescription drugs and their effects will be discussed.

In the United States of America, there is prescription drug abuse epidemic that continues to be a growing concern. Prescription drugs cause a large amount of overdoses and result in an abundant amount of deaths each year. A government study conducted shows this epidemic is scarily on the rise, “A recent government study found a 400% increase in prescription drug abuse between 1998 and 2008” (Schreiner 531). The excessive use of prescription drug abuse is leading to nonmedical use of the drugs, and creating addiction. Furthermore society is paying an extreme amount of money in this battle. With this drug abuse on the rise, legislators must create a law preventing doctors and pharmacists from over prescribing prescription medications as well a law to require they both participate in drug monitoring programs to prevent drug abuse. Now is the time that doctors and the pharmaceutical industry must be held accountable for their role in causing one of America’s worst addictions. The over medication of prescription drugs in the United States must be brought to an end by legislators creating laws to stop

Many people in America have overdosed on prescription drugs just by abusing them. Prescription drugs that are prescribed and sold in the United States has quadrupled the years. As a result of over prescribing leads to more abuse in the medication and/or more overdose deaths in America. But, however certain people may still need the medication to live and have a well functioning body but still abuse their prescription by taking more than instructed too and end up overdosing in the process of abuse. Many people in America don't even have to have the medication to be prescribed to them, some people just sell their prescription to random in their in the need of cash or if the other just wants something to make them feel good or relaxed. After just buying one pill, the buyer will the need to have more than just one pill, so they'll grow and addiction and start taking more than one at a time, which will lead to their

Prescription painkiller addiction and who is at fault for the abuse has become one of the new “hot topics”. There is a huge contradictory over who is at fault, the doctor prescribing the medication or the patient abusing it? Prescription drug abuse has become a worldwide problem. In order to get these medications, the users must have a prescription, which means a doctor must order them the drug. These prescription abusers are seeking out and demanding prescription painkillers in high doses in order to fulfill their craving of the drug. The most commonly abused prescriptions are opiates, depressants, and stimulants. Opiates are just basic painkillers. Opiates include Fentanyl, Hydrocodone, Oxycodone, Percocet, Morphine, etc. Depressants apply to your central nervous system; they are used to cure depression, anxiety, and sleep disorders. Pentobarbital sodium, Valium, and Xanax are typically the most common drugs used in depressants. Stimulants help to treat ADHD and narcolepsy. Ritalin, Adderall, and Dexedrine all occur in stimulating drug prescriptions. These medications have begun to substitute for the illicit street drugs in some cases. This problem has caused pharmaceutical drug overdoses to now be one of the leading causes of death in the nation.

The first being dependent patients who may be intentionally or inadvertently misusing their medications. Although this group may have genuine pain problems, some patients have become dependent as they rely on the drugs to improve how they feel or difficulties trying to cope with challenges in their life. Inadvertent dependence can arise from various reasons such as inappropriate prescribing, limited health literacy, poorly formed medication instructions or lack of communication by health care providers. The second group that abuses pharmaceutical drugs are those who use these medications for non-medical purposes. These individuals may be obtaining the medicines for self-treating purposes, personal recreational use or to trade on to others who abuse

There are three types of prescribed abused drugs: opioids, depressants, and stimulants. The most powerful is opioids. Opioids are used to block out pain. Some of these include opanas, oxycontin, and roxicodone, and 5.1 million Americans abuse them regularly (Drugabuse.gov). Some of those pills can cost any where from five dollars a pill all the way up to ninety dollars a pill (Drugs a-z) and could even cost more than that depending on where you live. Some of the street names can be roxy, o.p.s, oxy, and captain coden(Drug abuse.gov). ´“At the age of 20, I became an addict to a narcotic,which began with a prescription following a surgery.¨´-James. People normally become addicted to painkillers because of doctor giving them prescriptions after a major surgery.

There are multiple drugs that are classified as narcotics. Narcotics are defined by Merriam-Webster’s medical dictionary as, “a drug that in moderate does dulls the senses, relieves pain, and induces profound sleep but in excessive doses causes stupor, coma, or convulsions.” This is an issue when these narcotics are being abused or taken out of context. There are prescription narcotics, but there are also the street drugs that are being illegally produced and sold. Prescription pain medications are not a bad thing when they are prescribed and used correctly. Some examples of prescription narcotics are codeine, fentanyl and hydrocodone. While there are beneficial elements to these medications, there are also side effects. Medline Plus explains a few side effects as drowsiness, impaired judgement and a strong desire, or craving, for these medications. This is how the addictions begin to occur.