Until recently, drugs have for the most part been a foreign threat, as they were largely imported from South America, Southeast Asia and countries like Afghanistan. Now, the nature of the situation is changing, as drugs are increasingly becoming a home-grown problem. According to a recent publication of the Federal Government, the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, prescription drug abuse is now a top health concern.
The report was prepared by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), a division of the U.S. Department of Mental Health and Human Services. SAMHSA states that prescription drugs have overtaken drugs such as cocaine, heroin and LSD to become the second most widely abused drug in the country. Only marijuana is more commonly used. The rapid spread of prescription drugs has been astounding: approximately 22 million Americans have begun engaging in nonmedical use of prescription painkiller medications such as hydrocodone (Vicodin) and oxycodone (Oxycontin) since 2002. Officials from SAMHSA are quoted in the report as saying that prescription drug abuse is a serious problem facing the country and one that requires effective solutions for treatment and prevention to safeguard communities from the devastating toll that such drugs take.
The rise of prescription drug abuse can be traced in large part to the increase in prescriptions written for painkillers, ADHD medications, antidepressants and others. As an example, opiate painkillers were formerly reserved almost exclusively for terminally ill patients and those fighting cancer. The reason for this was that the risks of putting a patient on such powerfully addictive drugs seemed to be outweighed by the simple fact that there was a very high likelihood that the patient might not survive to become addicted. Now it has become common for doctors to prescribe painkillers for conditions as every-day as back pain, and Vicodin has become the number one most prescribed drug of any kind. Painkillers and other drugs have become a fact of life in the United States, to the point where the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that nearly half of Americans are on at least one medication and 11 percent are using five or more prescription drugs every month. The CDC has even described the current situation as being a “deadly epidemic.”
What states have the highest rates of prescription drug abuse?
The SAMHSA study revealed important information about how prescription drug abuse follows patterns according to geographic regions. For example, seven of the ten states with the highest rates of abuse were in the Western part of the country, while four of the states with the lowest rates were in both the Midwest and the South. This type of data makes it possible for SAMHSA and similar agencies to better understand the problem in each area and to tailor programs for prevention and treatment. One program that has already proven to be successful in a large number of states is the implementation of prescription drug monitoring programs, which make it possible to track patients and doctors and to detect patients who engage in “doctor shopping” by visiting several physicians in order to obtain multiple prescriptions, and “pill mills,” doctors and pain clinics that write abnormally large numbers of prescriptions.
One example from the report is Arizona, established such a program and subsequently has fallen from 3rd to 6th in the rankings of prescription drug abuse. While the different regions of the country may have varying levels and types of prescription drug abuse, one thing that the proposed solutions all have in common is a major focus on public education. The current epidemic is largely fueled by the fact that many people are simply unaware that such drugs are as dangerous as they are — they think that because they come from a doctor rather than a drug dealer, that they are somehow safe. Individuals can assist in the broader campaign to wipe out prescription drug abuse by clearing their medicine cabinets of unused prescriptions and depositing them at authorized drop-off locations, and by spreading the word to make sure that friends and family know that prescription medications are still drugs and are unsafe to use unless under a doctor’s supervision.
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Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/01/130108122445.htm
