Prescription Drug Abuse Research Paper

The Rate of Young Accidental Overdoses have Recently Increased Because Prescription Medication Abuse is Now on the Rise. Why are prescription medications quickly becoming the most abused drug throughout today's youth. Dr. Nora D. Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, estimates that forty eight million people misuse prescribed medicine. That is about twenty percent of the United States population (1). Maybe because these medications are fairly easy to posses, no matter of the age trying to acquire them. It is less expensive than street drugs such as ecstasy, marijuana, or cocaine. A thought of prescription pills may be less addictive and entertaining as well. Some people may also find drugs in their medicine cabinet
The news shows stories everyday from mobile methamphetamine labs being blown up, to political and authoritative figures wanting to legalize marijuana to help boost our economy by taxing and regulating the drug. So why are more teenagers abusing and overdosing more on prescription pills that street drugs now? Pills are more dangerous than most people will think. Who has ever began a diet and wished it would work quicker? Or who has stayed up all night to study for a major exam? Young people have their mind set to knowing it is very possible to get medications to abuse to assist both of these scenarios. A pill called Adderall is said to be the most abused pill by teenagers currently. It is abused simply for the effects on people it has. It is to treat someone who has Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), a problem with inattentiveness, over-activity, or a combination of all them. It is also used to treat narcolepsy, a sleep disorder that causes sleepiness and frequent daytime sleep attacks (Monson, 1-2). For the teenagers who do not require the use of the drug, Adderall has opposite effects. It causes an increase of alertness, attention, and energy, which leads to an increases in blood pressure, heart rate, and breathing. Weight loss is also side effect of Adderall, which is why most young people may start abusing Adderall but then quickly become addicted mentally. It also allows young party goers to stay
A survey was conducted in 2008 by Columbia University's National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA). This survey has found that some parents may be the blame for young children and teenagers to retrieve these pills and then misuse them. The teenagers who have supplied others, have gotten the drugs from medicine cabinets in their own homes. Though a parent may not be able to see a change in their child’s behavior it does and will mostly likely occur. Symptoms of pill addiction can be drowsiness, wariness, agitated, and mood swings can also occur. Internally depressants or opiods, such as painkillers causes the pills to attach to opioid receptors in the central nervous system, preventing the brain from receiving pain messages. The central nervous system depressants slow down brain activity by increasing the activity of a neurotransmitter. The result is a drowsy or calming effect. While on the other hand stimulants, like Adderall, cause an increase in brain activity, resulting in greater alertness, attention, and energy. I have witnessed the effects of medication abuse and drug use that put a close friend of mine in the hospital near