Essay about The Prescription Drug Abuse Crisis - 1690 Words

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.†¦show more content†¦Every individual has his or her own reason for abusing prescribed drugs but this does not justify their decisions. The effects of drug addiction make up an infinite list but its greatest effect is on the brain. Drug addicts experiment with substance abuse depending on the side effects of the drug used. If the drug is an opioid or painkiller, then the subject might be in a sleepy and stoic state. If it was a catalyst then the person is going to exhibit an excited and emotional behavior (i.e. talking a lot, laughing at nothing, babbling, and going through extreme emotion changes.) Depending on the type of drug the subject might even experience hallucinations that can cause them to even commit suicide (â€Å"Gwinnell, Esther, and Christine Adamec†). Some superficial indicators that a person is abusing these types of substances are bloodshot eyes, rapid weight lost, needle tracks, runny nose, and even poor personal hygiene. The side effects of drug abuse, as previously mentioned are magnified when it comes to the family. If the abuser is one or both of the parents/ guardians, the child might e nd up being mistreated and/or not taken care of. Furthermore, if the mother is pregnant, the baby might be born premature or underweight, have mental or physical problems, or have a disruptive later on in life. The most common cases are those in which there is a history of family violence. InShow MoreRelatedWhat Is The Total Economic Burden Of Prescription Opioid Abuse?1662 Words   |  7 PagesCurrent Event Paper 2 â€Å"The total economic burden of prescription opioid misuse alone in the United States is $78.5 billion a year, including the costs of healthcare, lost productivity, addiction treatment, and criminal justice involvement†. -The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Substance abuse disorders have been considered a major epidemic by public health authorities during this century. Most recently, those who use, and abuse opioids have been in the spotlight. The growing numberRead MorePrescription Opioid Abuse : An Increasing Epidemic With Solutions945 Words   |  4 Pages Prescription Opioid Abuse: An Increasing Epidemic with Solutions in Prescribing The rate of poisonings associated with drug overdoses has been on the rise, especially concerning those involving opioids (Paulozzie, Budnitz, Xi, 2006). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) does not mince words regarding the status of opioid utilization in the United States: ?The United States is in the midst of an opioid overdose epidemic? (CDC, 2016). Opioids are now the most common cause of prescriptionRead MoreDrug Abuse And The United States879 Words   |  4 PagesThe issue of drug abuse and addiction in the United States has become much more relevant in the past few years. Drugs and the drug crisis were for the longest time something which was limited geographically, socially and racially. Which is to say that drugs were only a â€Å"problem† in the inner city. 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Opium derived drugs block and suppress pain by binding to and stimulatingRead MoreThe Pharmaceutical Industry and Technological Advancement1765 Words   |  7 Pagespharmaceutical industries face is how to improve the quality it provides its patients, as well as becoming a determining factor in lessening drug and prescription abuse. A pharmacist is a health care professional who is an expert in the pharmaceutical field and on pharmaceutical drugs. They are responsible for improving the health of a patient and implementing drug therapy with the intention of improving the quality of a patient’s life. As technology and medicine are rapidly advancing, pharmacist’s commonRead MoreDrug Abuse And Opioid Epidemic Essay1168 Words   |  5 PagesThere have been several news coverages on TV and social network about drug overdose of different cases recently and they have risen people’s concern about the problems of drug abuse national-wide. The drug abuse and opioid epidemic is not a new problem to the American society, actually it has been a serious problem for many years. So what is the situation of drug epidemic now, and how can we find effective ways to deal with this problem? A few writers who ponder this question are Nora D. Volkow,Read MoreIncentive Based Drug Policy Solution1317 Words   |  6 Pages INTRODUCTION The current opiod addiction problem in the United States is America’s worst drug problem ever. The consequences have been steadily worsening reflected in recovery rates and overdose deaths. According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), over half a million people died of drug overdoses between 2000 and 2015 (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2017). This paper will evaluate the operation, impact, and effectiveness of the policies and the degree to which they are used. ManyRead MoreThe Problem Of Prescription Drugs1279 Words   |  6 Pagesexperiment with prescription drugs and many they think prescription drugs are safer than illicit drugs found on the streets. â€Å"According to the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, teens who abuse prescription drugs are twice as likely to use alcohol, five times more likely to use marijuana, and twelve to twenty times more likely to use illegal street drugs such as heroin, Ecstasy and coc aine than teens who do not abuse prescription drugs† (Drug free world, n.dRead MoreAbuse Of Opioid Drug Prevention1174 Words   |  5 PagesAbuse of opioid pain relievers (OPRs) continues to increase in the United States. Opioid-related overdose deaths since 1999 have quadrupled, correlated with quadrupled dispensing of prescription opioids (Rudd et al., 2016, CDC, 217). Among these deaths, prescription opioids have been involved approximately half (CDC, 2017). According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the central issue is elevated prescribing rates of physicians and the solution to this problem is safer prescribing practicesRead MoreSaving Lives, And The Needle Exchange Program833 Words   |  4 Pagesbased on research data The large indicator of success of these programs is the documented 75 percent reduction in HIV transmissions associated with injection drug use said Anne Roach, spokeswoman for the Department of Public Health. â€Å"Vivitrol is a drug some experts think can revolutionize the treatment of heroin and prescription opioid abuse† (Tabachnick, n.d). Vivitrol- the Washington County Health Department has given 246 shots to 83 people in the program’s 3 1 / 2 years (it pays $523 a shot because