en-us Copyright 2008 - All Rights Reserved. Sun, 22 Nov 2009 23:37:13 GMT 15 By Alyssa Indart
The abuse of prescription drugs made their way into teenage culture and at the same time became an invisible epidemic. 783,936 people in the United States die every year from conventional medicine mistakes, such as abusing prescription drugs, according to the groundbreaking medical report Death by Medicine, by Dr. Gary Null, Carolyn Dean, Martin Feldman, Debora Rasio and Dorothy Smith. “Prescription drug abuse has always been out there but now it is becoming recognized,” said Claudia Cohen, licensed clinical social worker at Hospice. Prescription drugs (known as Rx drugs) are prescribed by doctors daily for anything from a common cold to attention defi cient disorder (ADD). Many common prescription drugs include Opioids, Benzodiazepines, and Ritalin. “Body mass relates to how much is given to the person. A dose for an overweight person would be to strong for a teenager that’s slim,” said Claudia Cohen, licensed clinical social worker at Hospice. Prescription drugs are used to treat all sorts of symptoms but all have the potential to be dangerous, when many are taken, such as a drug reaction can occur because the drugs are made out of many chemicals and elements. “Drugs can be toxic to people, causing them to choke on their vomit, become unconscious, or die,” said Claudia Cohen, licensed clinical social worker at Hospice According to the National Institute Drug Association (NIDA)’s 2005 Monitoring the Future study conducted by the University of Michigan, 9.5% of high school seniors used Vicodin in the past year. Five million kids every day misuse pre scription drugs to cause damage to their bodies instead of using the prescription drugs to cure symptoms. “At normal doses Rx drugs are used to fi ght infection. At overdose levels side effects begin to happen, such as seizures,” said Annette Guerra, Pharmacist at the Target Store Pharmacy. The Drug Enforcement Administration reported that Ritalin misuse in high schools increased from 3 – 16% from 1992 to 1995. According to the Partnership for Drug Free America’s annual tracking study, 1 in 5 teenagers report abusing prescription drugs, such as stimulants and tranquilizers. “When trying to abuse prescription drugs most teenagers mix drugs with alcohol and intoxicate themselves,” said Cohen. Not all prescription drugs can be abused to the extent where the person gets addicted. According to Cohen, A cancer patient taking morphine cannot get addicted to it. When abusing prescription drugs there is a difference between tolerance and addiction. Tolerance to a prescription drug causes the body to become used to the drug so progressively; the person does not have a response to the drug anymore, unless the dose begins to increase. Addiction, on the other hand, is when the person cannot live without the drug. “Addiction to the drug all depends on the type of drug and what it is used for,” said Cohen. Addiction to prescription drugs is no different from abusing any other illicit drug and does not discriminate between race, gender, or age. Although females between the ages of 12 to 17 and 18 to 25 have shown the largest increase of prescription drug abuse over the past two decades, according to NIDA. Not all teenagers abusing prescription drugs do so with the intention of hurting themselves but prescription drugs, in the end, can become lethal. “There is this mistaken belief that intentionally abusing prescription and over-the-counter drugs is somehow safer than abusing street drugs,” said Steve Pasierb, president and CEO of the New York-based Partnership for Drug Free America. “Many teenagers abuse drugs to relieve them of pressure or for a thrill,” said Cohen. “In today’s world the use of drugs are widespread, easy to get, and abuse is rapidly increasing,” said Claudia Cohen, licensed clinical social worker at Hospice. ]]> Fri, 09 Nov 2007 18:50:00 GMT