Prescription Opiates

Prescription Drug Abuse Among Adolescents Prescription depressants are responsible for fourteen percent of overdoses while street drugs, such as marijuana, are guilty for thirty-nine percent of drug overdoses (Maxwell 267). Statistics prove the prescription drug epidemic that adolescents and adults face. Teenagers in suburbs and rural areas are more frequently exposed to prescription and illegal opiates due to its marketability and highly addictive properties. As consumers of prescription opiates build a tolerance, the addict begins to find cheaper opiates, such as cocaine and heroin, to satisfy their craving. Prescription opiates, administered by medical doctors, are commonly used to relieve sports injuries and other traumas. Doctors
Doctors should not be the scapegoats to the epidemic because a lack of sufficient tests exist. Doctors can prescribe medicine to patients with malignant pains, medicine that can become highly addictive. Doctors prescribe opiates not fully aware of their true addictive properties, rather only looking at the benefits. Social scientist have seen suburban middle-upper class families affected by prescription opiates. This results from opiates being overprescribed to athletes and others with aching pain, without properly informing them of the risks. Teenagers have admitted to seeing prescription opiates at parties alongside alcohol and marijuana. These teenagers were not aware of these highly addictive opiates and the impact the drugs would have on their lives. Adolescents exposed to prescription drugs are one in fifteen times more likely to experiment with heroin (Curriculum Review 1). Unfortunately, this statistic logically shows a connection for the need of cheaper opiates, resorting to heroin. Teenagers who used prescription opiates eventually turned to heroin as a cheaper opiate to satisfy their
Drug prevention messages speaking to adolescents would be an effective learning curve. With carefully crafted attack advertisements on drugs, they appear to slow down. Attack advertisements were created in 2000-2008 attacking marijuana, the Partnership Tracking Study saw the number of users decreased from 20.6% to 16.5% (Twombly 2). Parents should take initiative to become more knowledgeable when their teenager receives opiates, looking for warning signs, warning their child of the risks, and proactively taking steps to helping their adolescent heal. Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) should include prescription opiates in their drug offensive. Many states have begun to implement prescription opiates into their DARE programs to educate children on the risks involved. DARE effectively cut marijuana use among adolescents down 45% once initially implemented (Education Journal 1). Prescription opiates are rarely talked about because they are, seen as only having positive repercussions. Rarely stressed to adults and adolescents are the threats opiates impose. However, becoming better educated on opiates, ranging from prescription to heroin, will allow people to make better