Prescription Drug Abuse

Prescription drug abuse has become an epidemic in the United States especially among the youth of our country. The Partnership for a Drug Free America says that 2,500 teens a day abuse prescription drugs. Abuse of these narcotics can lead to serious mental and physical consequences. Why is this such a problem, what can we do to solve it, and how is it affecting our social lives? First we must explore what prescription drugs are being abused. The most popular abused drugs fall into three categories. Depressants of the central nervous system typically used to anxiety or sleep disorders. Stimulant used to treat such disorders as ADHD and ADD and the most commonly abused are opiates used to treat pain. Opiates attach to receptors in the brain to block pain when abused they create euphoric feeling. When taken properly they are used to treat many different types of pain including pain in teeth, skeletal system, skin, internal organs of the body. When used in high doses opiates can also relieve pain cause with certain types of cancer. The most commonly abused opiates are Hydrocodone, Oxycotin, Fentanyl, and Morphine. These substances are taken snorted, smoked and sometimes even injected to give a high close to heroine. Heroine is made from the opiate plant so these pain killers are basically synthetic heroine. Fentanyl happens to be 600 times more powerful then heroine. By the end of the 19th century nearly one million Americans were addicted to opiates (Drugs and Society p.250). In 1914 when the Harrison Narcotic Act was passed the average opiate addict was a middle age, southern, white woman who functioned well and was adjusted to her role as a wife and a mother. She bought Opium or Morphine legally by mail order from Sears and Roebuck or at the local store, used it orally and caused very few problems. A number of physicians were addicted as well. One of the best known Morphine addicts was William Holsted a founder of the John Hopkins Medical School (drugs and

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