Persuasive Essay On Prescription Drug Abuse

The abuse of prescription drugs in the United States is a problem that has gone largely unaddressed until recently. Only a hundred years ago, heroin was still a prescription medicine and the country’s favorite soda still contained cocaine. Now, the focus is on illegal drugs, and some of the most popular prescription drugs are becoming a new favorite of addicts and causing more and more overdoses. Their ease of obtainment, cheap cost with insurance, and ability to be turned around quickly for a profit are developing a problem large enough for health authorities to take notice. They’re not restricted to one race, economic class, or group, and more and more people develop an addiction to them every day. The number of people who have admitted to,

Even middle school kids as young as twelve years old have admitted to abusing prescription drugs that they either bought or found in their homes. Most times those children that abuse prescription drugs at a young age grow up to abuse illegal drugs as well. More often than not, their parents never even know about their child's addictions and how it is affecting them. College students are somewhat widely known for being guilty of this type of behavior as well. Students with lower grades, or students that need to get a leg up on others, often turn to amphetamines such as adderall to help them focus during long lectures. In most cases they use them to give them the concentration to complete multi page essays and projects. It only gets worse when speaking of fraternities and sororities, as well. While not generally associated with good deeds around the community, “The students who joined fraternities or sororities in college were the same ones who reported the highest levels of substance abuse in high school.”(Whitten 1). Dissecting the issue by race gives us an even better idea of the problem. It seems to be the biggest issue among white students, in which 4.9% of students reported having abused prescription drugs, as opposed to only 1.6% of African American students and 1.3 percent of Asian students. These students commonly abuse the same prescriptions, as those thought by students to have a positive academic effect are readily available on college campuses.(Whitten