Essay On Prescription Drug Abuse

Prescription drug abuse is a growing problem in the United States. Prescription drug abuse can be categorized by any sort of tampering that is done to the prescription drug. That may be overdosing intentionally, crushing, dissolving, chewing, injecting, or anything else that involves not taking the drug the way it has been prescribed. Scientists are developing ways to prevent addiction to prescription drugs and drug abuse. Society should be aware of prescription drug abuse not only to protect themselves from becoming addicted but also to be able to help others if they see warning signs for it. From 1998 to 2005 emergency room visits and unintentional deadly overdoses have increased dramatically. Also the number of individuals who are seeking treatment for substance abuse has risen from 1999 to 2008. Another shocking statistic is that for the first time in our history there are less deaths from car accidents than drug poisoning and overdoses.

There are a variety of ways a person can become addicted to prescription drugs. The largest way is when people are prescribed medication for short term and acute pain the prescription they receive is faster acting and doesn’t last as long. Because these medications are for short term pain there is typically a large amount of unused medication available to abusers. Another way many people are susceptible to prescription drug abuse is that if they are prescribed long term medication it may no longer help with their chronic pain, so they resort to other methods to help with pain. Most of these methods are considered tampering, such as more than the prescribed dose or crushing the dose. It also affects everyone because when someone becomes addicted to prescription drugs they may not be able to function at a job causing many different problems with raising taxes to help with treatment and other