There was nothing literally new in Al Roker's report, Generation Rx, on Msnbc, but there was nevertheless an alarming ring to it, as he asserted that abuse of prescribe medication (or pill addiction) is greater than cocaine, heroin, inhalants and hallucinogens combined. We always shudder at the understanding of drug lords and crime on the streets, but the many possible for pill addiction is right in our own rehabilitation cabinets.
Young people, teenagers and young adults, are the original abusers of prescribe pain medications, such as Oxycodone or Vicodin, or Percocet. The story said one out of five teenagers has abused prescribe medication and may have a pill addiction.
Medicine For Addiction
Would population on the street believe that 20% of their young population were doing this?
I doubt it. But kids get their first hits out of the house rehabilitation cabinet, not from some slimy pusher on the street. This is pain pill addiction regularly begins. Teens do not have the capability to fully think straight through the ramifications of drug abuse and are prime targets for experimentation and thrill seeking.
They take drugs for recreation, not knowing what potentially lies ahead. Even if some understand the dangers, they may choose to arrogantly or ignorantly ignore the warnings.
Joseph Califano, Jr., president of the National town for Addiction and Substance Abuse, Columbia University, explained that 80 percent of the abuse by teens is with pain killers, such as oxycodone or Vicodin, the two most popular. He warns of the growth of overdose and addiction as reaching epidemic proportions in the U.S.
Once hooked, addicts loose all sense of responsibility and reason. Young population with no criminal report of any kind are transformed from learner to felon because of the power of the addiction, as nothing else but getting high has any meaning for them. They can't focus on the things of life, such as relationships with house and friends. Their profession takes a backseat to feeding the addiction, and over time there is nothing left of their lives but emptiness and despair. It is a waste and a huge drain on the American economy.
Roker's piece featured stories about population who robbed pharmacies, crime sprees that would not stop unless the population were caught. But one of the truly largest, unregulated, unfettered sources for drugs is the internet pharmacies. Any child, armed with a computer and his/her parent's prestige card, can order any drugs they want on the internet. Oxies? Sure, why not.
We live in a society that worships the benefits of the pill. If you can't sleep, take a pill. If you are too heavy, take a pill. If you are in pain, take a pill. There is a pill for all things and if a doctor prescribes it, it can't be bad. But doctors can not live with their patients and make sure they don't abuse the drugs that are prescribed. There is not system in place to make sure that curative records can be viewed by a doctor before he/she issues the script. population are known to see any physicians for the same condition and get prescriptions from all of them.
The pill addiction is bad enough, but the whole of crimes population commit just to get high is staggering. The strain it puts on law compulsion and the criminal justice system in general is alarming. Dealers are busted every day in this country, but they are soon back out on the streets.
No matter how many arrests are made, there is an additional one wannabe dealer waiting to take the place of the dealer who has been locked up. Why? It's because there is a market. There is a lot of money involved and dealers are going for the quick buck. Sometimes that criminal transaction will net hundreds of thousands of dollars a year for the well-connected pusher.
Criminal gangs make drugs their top priority because there are fullness of clean-cut, suburban teenagers willing to buy, or victorious urban professionals who want to get high for recreation. The population we think are the good guys are literally the ones feeding the criminal enterprise. If you take away the market, the pushers go away.
Parents, lock up your prescribe medications. Take catalogue and count what you have on hand and be sure you know at all times what is there. Don't assume that your child isn't stealing them or isn't struggling with pill addiction. Be sensitive to any changes in your child's behavior and be willing to address the possibility of drug use. Keep your head up, your eyes open and don't be caught with your head in the sand.
Prescription drug abuse and pill addiction are an epidemic and we all have a stake in forming the future. Operate over how drugs are sold and distributed is vital, and the internet pharmacy is a bad idea whose time needs to come to an end. Likewise pharmacies have a responsibility to ensure security and security. Robberies are on the rise and measures must be taken to preclude the store hold-ups. We all have a responsibility to educate and help preclude young population from getting started.
Warning Signs of Pill Addiction
As a person slips into abuse and on to addiction prescribe medication, there are any warning signs that will help you decide if this is a possibility.
Does the person try to fetch prescriptions from any physicians and pharmacies?
Do they make frequent trips to the crisis division to receive pain medication?
Do they palpate anxiety about prescriptions that have lapsed, or not having sufficient of the drug?
Are there mood swings or attitude changes? Do they display signs of intoxication?
Are they drowsy?
Is their speech slurred?
Even older adults, who take much more medication than young people, can get into an abusive pattern with their meds. Because they take more drugs, the problem of negative drug interaction is a concern, and because they are taking so many dissimilar medications, it might be difficult just to keep track of the amounts and the dosages.Moreover, the medication stays in the body of the older person longer than it does in a young person, and that increases the drug's consequent on the individual. Signs of addiction prescribe medications include:
Confusion
Memory loss
Frequent accidents or falls
While this might be common for older adults in general, it's important to identify the warning signs and wise up their doctor about the possibility of drug abuse.
There are many examples of how population get into addiction prescribe medication. It might start with a knee injury and end up in disunion court after months of spending the family's money to get the drug. It might have been a need for medication to relax stress, but it turned into and endless hunt for the drug, far beyond the confines of suitable curative practice. No matter, the serious nature of addiction applies to prescribe medication just as it does to illegal drugs, or alcohol.
Knowing the warning signs and having reliable facts are the keys to recognizing and dealing with abuse of prescribe medication. The medicines that doctors prescribe, in their right dosage and frequency, conduce to our condition and well-being. But abuse, intentional or otherwise, leads to addiction and serious condition concerns.
Generation Rx - Addiction to Pills
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