Prescription drug abuse is an epidemic that has been classified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It has shown much increase within the past decade throughout the United States and is the nations fastest growing drug problem. The National Institutes of Health through the National Institute on Drug Abuse is a major component of the efforts to guide and develop drug policies. The Office of National Drug Control Policy has impacted the nation in a very positive way by enforcing new policy programs to prevent a further rise in prescription drug abuse.
With the participation of the public and interest groups, public policies have been established and reviewed to solve the issue at hand. The policies regarding prescription drugs have a direct impact on the budget of many stakeholders, medical facilities and people who are dependent on medication to remain healthy. With such a difficult epidemic to solve there are many conflicts that have risen with the policies in review and with those that have been implemented and are in current and constant evaluation.
Overview of Policy Issues
In the late 1960’s the public became aware of the new epidemic that was significantly affecting the country. The percentage of youths that misuse prescription drugs continues to proceed in numbers and through research being continuously conducted, the numbers will only enhance. Adolescents and young adults are among the largest demographic subpopulations of non-medical prescription drug misusers (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration). Prescription drugs that are abused by Americans include pain relievers, tranquilizers, stimulants and sedatives. Pain relievers are the most widely abused prescription drug categ...
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...itute on Drug Abuse is also engaging in scientific and biomedical research to clearly understand the drug abuse and addiction to improve the treatment methods (Policy and Research).
Prescription drugs are overprescribed and sometimes improperly prescribed. Encouraged by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), prescribers were required adequate training in prescription drug therapy to ensure they had proper knowledge of the FDA approved product labeling for the prescription drugs they prescribe. By educating the providers about the possible risks that result from prescribing incorrectly to ensure that they are considering the possible drug interactions when prescribing a patient with new medication. Medical students would then receive more hours in pain and pain management training to greatly reduce patient prescription misuse (Throckmorton).
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.
The United States of America accounts for only 5% of the world’s population, yet as a nation, we devour over 50% of the world’s pharmaceutical medication and around 80% of the world’s prescription narcotics (American Addict). The increasing demand for prescription medication in America has evoked a national health crisis in which the government and big business benefit at the expense of the American public.
More than often, American’s argue that if we have the technology to gain access to these “miracle meds”, then we should take advantage of it. To receive an opposing view, the National Institute of Drug Abuse asked teens around America why they think prescription drugs are overused, and the results were shocking; 62%: “Easy to get from parent's medicine cabinets”, 51%: “They are not illegal drugs”, 49%: “Can claim to have prescription if caught”, 43%: “They are cheap”, 35%: “Safer to use than illegal drugs”, 33%: “Less shame attached to using”, 32%: “Fewer side effects than street drugs”, 25%: “Can be used as study aids”, and 21%: “Parents don't care as much if caught”. I believe the major problem here isn’t the medication, but instead the fact that our nation is extremely uninformed on the “do’s and dont’s” of prescription medication. When “the United States is 5 percent of the world’s population and consumes 75 percent of the the world's prescription drugs” (CDC), there is a problem present, no matter the reason. Clearly, many critics believe the breathtaking amount of pills we consume in America is simply for the better good, but tend to forget the effects that are soon to follow.
... age could cause adolescents to seek to an alternative way to get opioids from the black market. Doctors will try to lower the rates of opioid dependents by prescribing an alternative medications. With many opioid-dependent patients becoming addictive to opioids it causes huge effects on the human body. With having opioid exposure at such a young age increase the possibility of becoming opioid-dependent patients. “About three quarters of all adolescents receiving treatment for opioid use disorders reported first used before the age of 25” (Pugatch, Marianne, et al 435). Also adolescents visit the emergency department involving “opioid pain relievers and benzodiazepines” (Jones, Christopher M, Leonard J Paulozzi, and Karin A Mack 881). There are many ways to make sure that adolescents will become educated about opioid addiction, for example treatment facilities.
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
This topic is very controversial topic because it deals with a growing body of citizens whose lives have greatly been affected by the United States government drug policies. In order to tackle the problem effectively, we need to look how it relates to economic problems, health issues, the criminal justice system and etc in our communities I look at bureau of justice statistics for statistics on National Drug Budget control, National household survey on drug abuse, prison statistics and book written by scholars on the issue.
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.
Illicit drug use and the debate surrounding the various legal options available to the government in an effort to curtail it is nothing new to America. Since the enactment of the Harrison Narcotic Act in 1914 (Erowid) the public has struggled with how to effectively deal with this phenomena, from catching individual users to deciding what to do with those who are convicted (DEA). Complicating the issue further is the ever-expanding list of substances available for abuse. Some are concocted in basements or bathtubs by drug addicts themselves, some in the labs of multinational pharmaceutical companies, and still others are just old compounds waiting for society to discover them.
National Institute on Drug Abuse (2009). Preventing Drug Abuse: The Best Strategy . Retrieved October 21, 2011, from http://www.nida.nih.gov/scienceofaddiction/strategy.html
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). Health Watch (2004) state girls tend to lean towards the medi...
In recent years’ health reform has been a driving force in the United States political system. If you watch the news, you will understand how citizens, the government, or the economy are or might be affected by some sort of change in medical regulation. One of these hot topic issues is the cost of prescription drugs. Every major drug market besides the United States regulates the price of drugs in some way (Abbott and Vernon). By the United States not doing so, many believe it opens consumers up to being exploited by large pharmaceutical companies.
Years ago, the common image of an adolescent drug abuser was a teen trying to escape from reality on illegal substances like cocaine, heroin, or marijuana. Today, there is a great discrepancy between that perception and the reality of who is likely to abuse drugs. A teenage drug abuser might not have to look any further than his or her parent’s medicine chest to ‘score.’ Prescription drug abuse by teens is on the rise. Also, teens are looking to prescription drugs to fulfill different needs other than to feel good or escape the pressures of adulthood. Teens may be just as likely to resort to drugs with ‘speedy’ side effects, like Ritalin to help them study longer, as they are to use prescription painkillers to check out of reality. Pressures on teens are growing, to succeed in sports or to get high grades to get into a good college (Pressures on today’s teens, 2008, theantidrug). Furthermore, because prescriptions drugs are prescribed by doctors they are less likely to be seen as deleterious to teens’ health. A lack of awareness of the problem on the part of teens, parents and society in general, the over-medication of America, and the greater stresses and pressures put upon teens in the modern world have all conspired to create the growing problem of prescription drug abuse by teens.
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. Not to mention the fact that the doctors who prescribe these opioids often tend to misuse them as well. Abusing these prescribed drugs can “destroy dreams and abort great destinies," and end the possibility of the abuser to have a positive impact in the community.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) budget increased to 28.3 million. This increase will ensure NIDA’S continuing commitment to key research efforts, including basic research on the nature of addiction, development of science-based behavioral interventions, medications, development, ...
Drug abuse has been a hot topic for our society due to how stimulants interfere with health, prosperity, and the lives of others in all nations. All drugs have the potential to be misapplied, whether obtained by prescription, over the counter, or illegally. Drug abuse is a despicable disease that affects many helpless people. Majority of those who are beset with this disease go untreated due to health insurance companies who neglect and discriminate this issue. As an outcome of missed opportunities of treatments, abusers become homeless, very ill, or even worst, death.