Article Contributed By: Anthony LaMorte, CEO & Founder at Recovery Choice Network
There is a national epidemic of drug addiction taking place in the United States. More people are overdosing and dying from prescription narcotics. Overdose deaths from prescription painkillers have more than tripled in the last 20 years.
Younger and younger teens are abusing drugs that they find in their parent’s medicine cabinets or that they are getting from their friends on the street. More and more suburban parents and young adults are turning to the streets to buy heroin because of an initial addiction to medication.
Pharmaceutical Companies Are Overloading Consumers
Painkillers of all types have pharmaceutical companies turning out more prescription drugs than the population can consume. Prescription drug abuse is on the rise throughout every area of society.
Are doctors helping us or hurting us? That’s the major question when it comes to the amount of prescriptions they are writing for patients at a vast number more than ever before. Patients can walk into a doctor’s office and complain of any type of pain and walk out with a prescription for 30, 60, or 90 tablets of any of the powerful narcotic pain relievers on the market.
Manipulating Doctors to Get Drugs
It’s not a hard act to follow and many so called “patients” have utilized this hoax of a visit to the doctor in order to manipulate a doctor into giving them a prescription for narcotics for their own use or to even sell on the streets. The problem lies with the relationships between the pharmaceutical companies and the doctors.
Every time a doctor writes a prescription it is tracked back to the pharmaceutical company and the specific doctor which generates a certain dollar amount to be paid back to the doctors as a bonus for writing these particular prescriptions for specific pharmaceutical companies.
Therefore, I ask again, are doctors helping us or hurting us? Then comes the role of the patient when they play “doctor shopping”. This is where the patient will go to multiple doctors for the same illness in order to get multiple prescriptions for narcotic pain relievers.
National Database of Prescription Drug Use
There is now a national database across the country that registers all doctors, pharmacies, and patients every time they fill a prescription for narcotic pain relievers. This national database is what everyone can see prior to filling a prescription.
Once the pharmacy puts the information of a patient and prescription into this national database it will immediately allow or deny a pharmacy to fill the particular prescription. If the national database shows that a patient recently filled a narcotic prescription anywhere in the country or at least within those states that are in the federal database then the system will inform a pharmacist NOT to fill that prescription.
When a pharmacy receives this information within 5 minutes of entering the data, by Federal Law they are prohibited to fill that specific prescription. This database is new and recently came about in most states. It won’t be long before all states are on this database. This is definitely a major nail in coffin of prescription drug abuse.
Prices on the Black Market Are Extreme
The street value of these pain relievers are moderate which makes it possible for many people to purchase these on the black market. Pain relievers will usually go for the price of $1.00 per milligram on the streets. Out on the streets these opioids like:
- Oxycodone;
- Hydrocodone;
- Opana;
- Vicodin;
- Percocet;
- Adderall; and now
- Tramadol;
…along with benzodiazepines like Xanax per go for $1.00 per milligram per pill up to as much as $30 per pill. This epidemic has become worldwide affecting people of all ages from the ages of 13 and up. The number one drug on the market now, isn’t cocaine, heroin, or marijuana, like the old days. Today the number one drug on the street is PRESCRIPTION DRUGS.
The Top 10 Abused Prescription Drugs
- OxyContin
- Xanax
- Vicodin
- Suboxone
- Adderall
- Valium
- Percocet
- Ambien
- Fentanyl
- Klonopin
Prompt Education Is a Must
We must begin immediately in educating our young members in society as a whole in all areas of drug awareness and the deadly addiction behaviors. All of the above prescription drugs are dangerous if abused, are easily addictive and can cause emotionally difficult and physically painful withdrawal if not detoxed and treated medically.
The opioid medications are physically addicting and after prolonged use will ultimately also call for a medically supervised detox to aid in painful withdrawal symptoms. This epidemic in our society is not going away any time soon, if anything….it will get much worse before it gets any better.
The opinions and views of our guest bloggers are shared to provide a broad perspective of addiction. These are not necessarily the views of Addiction Hope, but an effort to offer discussion of various issues by different concerned individuals.