Prescription Drug Abuse

522 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Aspects of medication safety

Prescription Drug Abuse
David was a junior in high school. He started hanging with the wrong crowd and smoking marijuana. However, with his final year of high school approaching he wanted a change in his life. He joined the boxing team and quit doing drugs, but one Saturday night and that all ended. David was hanging out with a few friends and he was offered a patch that was supposed to make him feel very good. He didn't know what was in the patch, but it contained Fentanyl which is a special pain reliever for cancer patients. His friend told him to cut open the patch and eat what was inside. The next morning, David never woke up. Eight weeks later Liz Wiggins found out that it was the Fentanyl that killed her son (Fox News). "In 2004 there were 15 million Americans ages 12 and up that took Prescription Drugs and used them non-medically "(Prescription Drugs: Their use and Abuse). This paper will examine the causes of prescription drug abuse and the solutions such as providing more education and enforcing the distribution of prescription drugs.
One of the main causes of prescription drug abuse is the lack of education for both doctors and patients. People usually use prescription drugs to loose weight, get high, and get stronger. Many people who consume drugs do not know the dangers that exist while consuming them. Patients normally don’t think to themselves that these medications are dangerous because they come from Pharmacies and are provided from doctors. However, prescription drugs can be just as deadly and detrimental to your health like a gun or drinking alcohol can be. Most people don’t care to properly store them either. If prescription drugs aren't treated at the recommended temperature, at the right dosage, or taken by the right person, you can take something that was meant to save lives and turn it into something that can seriously hurt or make you very sick. One of the most dangerous prescription drugs out there right now is OxyCotin. OxyCotin is a prescription drug pain reliever that's designed to slowly release medicine over time by form of a capsule. Abusers bypass that by chewing, injecting, and even snorting the medicine in the drug (Meadows, Michelle). Prescription Drugs: Their Use and Abuse says when a person takes so much over the safe dosage amount the drug can actually have very different effects on your body.

Show More
Related

  • Heroin Cape Cod Summary

    936 Words  | 2 Pages

    The documentary Heroin Cape Cod, USA focused on the widespread abuse of pain medication such as Vicodin, Percocet, and Oxycodone that has led the U.S. into the rise of an opiate addiction. Many of the users within the video explained that it doesn’t matter where you go, there is no stopping, and you can’t just get high once. Instead, those who do it want that high forever. I think that this is a very important concept that those who aren’t addicted to drugs need to understand, no matter how hard it is to. The documentary featured many addicts including Marissa who first popped pills when she was 14 years old, Daniel who stated he started by snorting pixie sticks, and Arianna who started smoking weed and drinking before age 12. Additionally, the documentary interviewed Ryan and Cassie. These addicts explained that in Cape Cod you either work and you’re normal, or you do drugs.

    Read More

  • Barbara Ehrenreich 's Nickel And Dimed

    1158 Words  | 3 Pages

    Prescription and pharmaceutical drug abuse is beginning to expand as a social issue within the United States because of the variety of drugs, their growing availability, and the social acceptance and peer pressure to uses them. Many in the workforce are suffering and failing at getting better due to the desperation driving their addiction.

    Read More

  • Chasing Heroin Analysis

    775 Words  | 2 Pages

    The documentary states that over 27,000 deaths a year are due to overdose from heroin and other opioids. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in 2015 prescription pain relievers account for 20,101 overdose deaths, and 12,990 overdose deaths are related to heroin (Rudd et al., 2010-2015). The documentary’s investigation gives the history of how the heroin epidemic started, with a great focus on the hospice movement. We are presented with the idea that once someone is addicted to painkillers, the difficulty in obtaining the drug over a long period of time becomes too expensive and too difficult. This often leads people to use heroin. This idea is true as a 2014 survey found that 94% of respondents who were being treated for opioid addiction said they chose to use heroin because prescription opioids were “more expensive and harder to obtain (Cicero et al., 2014).” Four in five heroin users actually started out using prescription painkillers (Johns, 2013). This correlation between heroin and prescription painkiller use supports the idea presented in the documentary that “prescription opiates are heroin prep school.”

    Read More

  • Suboxone Therapy

    1579 Words  | 4 Pages

    Almost one hundred years ago, prescription drugs like morphine were available at almost any general store. Women carried bottles of very addictive potent opiate based pain killers in their purse. Many individuals like Edgar Allen Poe died from such addictions. Since that time through various federal, state and local laws, drugs like morphine are now prescription drugs; however, this has not stopped the addiction to opiate based pain killers. Today’s society combats an ever increasing number of very deadly addictive drugs from designer drugs to narcotics to the less potent but equally destructive alcohol and marijuana. With all of these new and old drugs going in and out of vogue with addicts, it appears that the increase of misuse and abuse is founded greater in the prescription opiate based painkillers.

    Read More

  • Drugs in American Society, by Erich Goode

    1098 Words  | 3 Pages

    Drug in the American Society is a book written by Eric Goode. This book, as the title indicates, is about drugs in the American Society. It is especially about the misuse of most drugs, licit or illicit, such us alcohol, marijuana and more. The author wrote this book to give an explanation of the use of different drugs. He wrote a first edition and decided to write this second edition due to critic and also as he mentioned in the preface “there are several reason for these changes. First, the reality of the drug scene has changed substantially in the past dozen or so years. Second much more information has been accumulated about drug use. And third, I’m not the same person I was in 1972.”(vii). The main idea of this book is to inform readers about drugs and their reality. In the book, Goode argued that the effect of a drug is dependent on the societal context in which it is taken. Thus, in one society a particular drug may be a depressant, and in another it may be a stimulant.

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay On Opioids

    1011 Words  | 3 Pages

    Opioids are used as pain relievers and although it does the job, there are adverse side effects. Opioids are frequently used in the medical field, allowing doctors to overprescribe their patients. The substance can be very addicting to the dosage being prescribed to the patient. Doctors are commonly prescribing opioids for patients who have mild, moderate, and severe pain. As the pain becomes more severe for the patient, the doctor is more likely to increase the dosage. The increasing dosages of the narcotics become highly addicting. Opioids should not be prescribed as pain killers, due to their highly addictive chemical composition, the detrimental effects on opioid dependent patients, the body, and on future adolescents. Frequently doctors have become carless which causes an upsurge of opioids being overprescribed.

    Read More

  • Argumentative Essay On Opioid Abuse

    767 Words  | 2 Pages

    Most adolescents who misuse prescription pain relievers are given the medication by an unknown friend or relative. This is a situation that can easily be avoided with an education on the risks of opioids. Patricia Schram, MD, an adolescent substance abuse specialist at Children’s Hospital Boston, stresses the importance of parent involvement in preventing young adults from abusing opioids and in the recovery process, citing a study that claimed, “teens were less likely to abuse opioids if their parents often checked their homework, if they had been frequently praised by their parents and if they perceived strong disapproval of marijuana from their parents” (Viamont 1). Besides parent and family involvement, physicians have a role to play in preventing the spread of the opioid epidemic.

    Read More

  • Prescription Drug Abuse Among Teens

    1626 Words  | 4 Pages

    Almost everybody on Long Island, and probably all around the world, has been prescribed a drug by a doctor before— whether it was to knock out a nasty virus, or relieve pain post injury or surgery. However, what many people don’t realize is that these drugs can have highly addictive qualities, and more and more people are becoming hooked, specifically teenagers. But when does harmlessly taking a prescription drug to alleviate pain take the turn into the downward spiral of abuse? The answer to that question would be when the user begins taking the drug for the “high” or good feelings brought along with it—certainly not what it was prescribed for (1). The amount of teens that abuse prescription medications has been rapidly increasing in recent

    Read More

  • Abusing Prescription Medical Case Study

    1317 Words  | 3 Pages

    Daniel is a 43 year old Caucasian male who identified as heterosexual. Daniel is currently married to Sandy for year and together they have a son. Daniel drinks a gallon of Vodka every day. He wakes up around three AM to drink to avoid withdrawal sickness. Daniel sickness includes seizure, shaking, heart rate and sweat perfurcelly. Daniel reported that he needs to have alcohol in his system in order to function at all. Daniel also abuses multiple prescription medications on a daily basis; 15 prescription a day narcotic and opines for pain control. Daniel is also abusing cough syrup.

    Read More

  • Past and Current Trends of Drug Abuse in the United States

    700 Words  | 2 Pages

    Fatal complications occur from regular use, for example, liver damage, seizures, elevated blood pressure causing stroke, heart failure, or heart attack. Another growing fad in the United States is the abuse of prescription drugs. The abuse is being done by not only adults, but by teens. The most current trend today is the misuse of cough syrups and prescription medications to produce a “high.” Other medications abused today are stimulants (Ritalin), and benzodiazepines (Xanax).

    Read More

  • The Pros And Cons Of Medicine Cabinets

    706 Words  | 2 Pages

    Bernstein reflects upon parents are often stressed about their children consuming alcohol and marijuana while they are attending school, at a party or sleeping over a friend’s house for the night. That being the case, there is a now a new issue to worry about as well, their own medicine cabinet. Under those circumstances, the article goes on to state; a trend of the abuse of prescription drugs among adolescents rage from, attention-deficit drugs such as Ritalin, Adderall (used to improve concentration or weight loss), painkillers such as OxyContin, Vicodin along with Percocet (Bernstein,

    Read More

  • Informative Essay On Prescription Drug Abuse

    413 Words  | 1 Pages

    It is also the most abused drug in people between the ages of 17-25 because,”In the U.S., past-year prevalence of nonmedical use of prescription drugs -- opioids, stimulants, tranquilizers and sedatives--was reported by 6 percent of 12 to 17 year-olds and just under 12 percent of 18 to 25 year-olds, mainly driven by the misuse of opioids” this shows that opioids leads the number for the highest nonmedical use of a prescription drug in America. Another reason why opioids are the most misused drug is that they are quite easily obtained. Anyone can go to the doctors office and fake an illness to get

    Read More

  • Pharmacists and Prescription Drug Abuse

    1412 Words  | 3 Pages

    West Virginia has one of the highest rates for prescription drug abuse, and overdose in the nation. In order to change this it is important to understand what pharmacists do, their role in prevention, and the severity of prescription drug abuse. Pharmacists are known to dispense prescription drugs to patients and inform them about their use; However, one aspect of their career most people overlook is that Pharmacists must keep a sharp eye out for criminals looking to abuse these prescribed drugs.

    Read More

  • Non Medical Use Of Prescription Drugs

    1755 Words  | 4 Pages

    In accordance to the world drug report in 2010, “the misuse of prescription drugs, including opioids, benzodiazepines, and synthetic prescription stimulants, is a growing health problem in a number of developed and developing countries.” An overdosage can occur both by the obtaining of legitimized prescriptions or by obtaining drugs that was not prescribed. The issue is rather complex because the root of the problem is very disputable. The difficulty in preventing diversion while ensuring accessibility to those who need it for medical purpose proposes the complication of establishing an effective policy on prescription drug abuse. Policy makers or those with the appropriate authority must go through complicated procedures to exactly pinpoint improper or illegitimate prescribing. An existence gap in tracking the distribution of prescription drugs allows for diversion to individuals not prescribed with the following medication. Close monitoring covers more towards illegal drugs, alcohol, and tobacco. Therefore, monitoring non-medical use of prescription drugs is a special case that requires attention in an inventive level. This issue requires immediate attention because not only that there is a rapid increase in the use of these medications, but younger consumers are also turning to this manner. As a matter of fact, 2.6% of people aged 12 years or older have reported using prescription drug non medically in 2005. Within the 12 to 17 years age group, females are more likely to use prescription drugs in a non-medical context than males. The future of the United States is at stake especially when younger individuals are growing into a ‘pill popping culture’ where non-medical use of prescription drugs is already a cultural norm. Most life issues are treated through medication along with the

    Read More

  • Argumentative Essay On Drug Abuse

    1089 Words  | 3 Pages

    Users who abuse drugs by prescription improperly use them by taking somebody else 's prescription, taking medication to get high, or taking medication in other ways than applied

    Read More

More about Prescription Drug Abuse

Open Document