We have all heard about the prescription drug problem. The patients who are prescribed pain medications that they truly need, and end up getting addicted to them. There is also the teenager who uses over the counter or prescription medications to get high. These addicts are not the face that you would attach to the hard core drug addicts on the street. But in fact, they are one in the same. What starts out as either casual drug use or necessary medications can change a person’s life forever. How are these people getting the drugs to fuel their addictions?
Teenagers often have access to their parent’s medicine cabinets. It is easy to take a pill here or there, hard for the parent to notice when one pill out of the bottle is gone. Most parents don’t think to lock up their medications in their own homes. Or, perhaps the parent is done with the medication and does not need it anymore. They need to be disposed of properly. The DEA has guidelines on safe ways to dispose of your unused medications. Perhaps most surprising is the amount of dirty doctors who are selling prescriptions for recreational use. Word gets out and addicts know who which doctors are willing to write these prescriptions. They make an appointment and pay in cash for the prescriptions that they desire. These doctors are writing prescriptions for pain medications and even for very potent cancer drugs.
According to CNN, one person dies every nineteen minutes from a drug overdose. The FDA is trying to impose new restrictions for the most commonly prescribed narcotics on the market. They are trying to get opiates rescheduled to Schedule II drugs which would require a written prescription instead of phone call to prescribe, and no refills without seeing your doctor first. It will also place manufacturing quotas on these drugs so that abundance can not be manufactured. This will hopefully have patients check in with their doctors more frequently so that the doctors can make the decision on whether or not the patient should continue with the medications. At home, we can all be vigilant about locking up our medications, disposing of them properly, and being aware of our teenagers behavior so that if a problem begins we can address it immediately.