What Is Prescription Drug Abuse?
Perhaps you’ve seen the latest anti-drug commercial on television: The high school boy who shows off a collection of pills stolen from the medicine cabinets of family and friends. This isn’t a film director’s fiction; this is a scene that plays out in America’s high schools every day. The prescription drugs that many adults rely on to control chronic diseases like high blood pressure and arthritis are finding an illicit market among our nation’s youth. Teens may filch just one or two pills out of a bottle left on a kitchen counter or stored in the bathroom medicine cabinet, not enough to be missed, but enough to sell to friends during lunch break or between classes. Some teens sell their own Ritalin or their little brother’s. Others pinch a couple of pills off grandma’s bedside table during the weekly family visit. Bolder teens steal pills when they babysit or visit friends’ homes.
Though “pharming” — grabbing a handful of prescription drugs and swallowing some or all of them — is a disturbingly growing trend among teens and twenty-somethings, prescription drug abuse isn’t limited to the young. Seniors have been caught falsifying prescriptions to get more pain medication. An Ohio real estate agent lost her license after stealing pills from medicine cabinets during Open Houses. Prescription drug abuse accounts for one-third of all drug abuse in the U.S.
Prescription drugs are an appealing choice for drug addicts. They’re legal, comparatively inexpensive and fairly easy to obtain. Many prescription drugs can be purchased on the internet and shipped to homes, eliminating the stigma of dealing with a street pusher. For teens who steal from family members, the drugs are free and readily available.
In our society, pills seem to be a normal part of daily life. We take a daily vitamin pill, maybe several. Have a headache? Pop a couple of Tylenol. A cold, a minor cough, a touch of acid reflux, an achy muscle — every minor ache or pain sends us to the medicine cabinet. We often fail to realize the potential harm of prescription drugs until it is too late. Used outside of their prescribed use, prescription drugs can be lethal.
