Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Elle McMahon
McLaughlin
English 12
19 February 2020
Can you recall the last time you went without taking a prescription drug? Whether it’s
medication that can be prescribed to alleviate your symptoms. The thing that I was so
adderall, ritalin, vyvanse, and much more. I myself have been prescribed adderall for
ADHD and the process is easy enough that almost anyone could meet the standards if
they answer the questions correctly. Knowing that the process to get ahold of these
medications is so simple it wouldn’t be difficult for them to get in the wrong hands. If
and when these medications get in the wrong hands what happens to the individuals
What most people are unaware of is that on average one hundred and thirty Americans
die every day from an opioid overdose, and in the nineteen nineties that was the most
from the public (Martin B., Crescent, Hales M., Gu, Quipig and Ogden L., Cynthia).
Doctors from around the country were promoting its usage without realizing the addictive
properties it contained and because of that outbreak, over two point one million
Americans are addicted in the current era (Ireland). The advertisement, production, and
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supplied to the public in order to prevent more individuals from being addicts.
DEPENDENCY RISKS
The dosages of these medications and the length of time prescribed are all contributing
factors to why and how people become addicted. Individuals that are prescribed
medications for pain, sleep deprivation and learning disabilities are more at risk for
dependency because of the addictive chemicals in the medications. The main issue with
individuals getting ahold of these prescriptions is what their actions are after they leave
the pharmacy, although most pharmacists instruct the patients how to take the medication
Dangers of Prescription Drugs. In two thousand and eighteen, there was a survey
conducted by the National Survey on Drug Use and Health that estimated about “sixteen
point nine million Americans over the age of twelve have initiated misuse or misused
prescription drugs in the past year.” (Kelley). Considering that the United States alone
has a population of three hundred and twenty seven point two million people, the amount
of drug abuse is significantly high among the country. It is detrimental to our country that
out of the sixteen point nine million individuals that are abusing these drugs, there are
Even with regulation these controlled medications ((those which are regulated and
scheduled by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA)) are being increasingly misused
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day by day. With the numbers increasing more and more everyday, whether it comes to
abuse or deaths among the population, there are faults among the system of medication
regulation that need to be fixed and perfected in order to decrease these numbers.
have monthly checkups to determine whether they are developing dependency and what
actions need to be taken to reduce or to stop it from progressing any farther. Even genetic
and personal history should be accounted for to know which patients need to be seen
more often than others due to the amount of exposure they have had to these drugs from
family members or friends. Especially because most people keep their medications in
their home, it becomes easier to obtain access to them from family and friends by sharing
pills with one another (Ireland). Taking the time to secure your medications, count the
pills and knowing who has access to them can save lives.
Pain Relievers. Prescription pain relievers in two thousand and nineteen were the third
highest substance with the largest number of initiates of use or misuse in the United
States (Kelley). The most commonly abused prescriptions I came upon while researching
were depressants, opioids and stimulants. The reason these medications are so commonly
misused is because of the euphoric feeling (the high) they provide to the people using
them (“Are the Benefits of Prescription Drugs Worth the Risks?”). Pain prescriptions,
although are very helpful to those who use them as directed, can create more harm than
Opioids, such as oxycodone and codeine were first introduced in the nineteen
nineties as safe pain relievers by doctors across the country, but later these same “safe”
medications started the “first wave of the opioid epidemic.” In this era of time, these
medications were televised daily and it was even possible for patients to call the doctor
and say the same of what prescription they desired. Doctors at the time thought that the
addiction threat was considered to be low so they wrote prescriptions for painkillers in
“record numbers.” Two decades later, physicians were writing two hundred and thirty
eight million prescriptions per year. To this day, there are two point one million people
currently affected by opioids and on average one hundred and fifteen Americans die
everyday from “Opioid-related overdose.” Forty percent of the Opioid related overdoses
were involving a written prescription from a doctor and the other sixty percent was from
At this point in time, patients were not fully informed that the same medications
that relieve all their pain can cause the patients to feel sleepy, sick to their stomach and
constipated. At higher doses they can create difficulty breathing and even in some cases
death. Opioid pain medications bind to molecules on to cells known as opioid receptors,
these receptors are the same ones that heroin react to. The receptors are found on nerve
cells throughout the human body and brain, which are all throughout the human body and
frontal lobe of the brain (“Prescription Drugs”). Due to the lack of information that the
doctors provided to the patients, millions are now addicted today. If these prescription
drugs were monitored and retained more carefully, then the Opioid epidemic could have
Stimulants. Stimulants are drugs used to treat disorders such as narcolepsy and ADHD.
They create the same euphoric feeling as Opioids, a feeling of calmness and an elevated
mood by increasing the amount of dopamine and norepinephrine in the brain (Bittar). Just
like any other drug that affects the brain, they can cause physical dependence among an
individual. The reason that medications such as adderall, ritalin, concerta and ecstasy can
be so detrimental to your health is because they change your behavior, mood and
perceptions (“Prescription Drug Use”). This feeling of an elevated mood and europhia
can only be achieved by taking these drugs and once the individual stops taking them
The withdrawal symptoms of these medications are too difficult to be dealt with
Four hundred and six thousand adults between the ages of eighteen and twenty five have
abused stimulants and one hundred and three thousand of those users ended up in
because your brain is not able to make enough of it by itself (Bittar). This is why I
believe that prescription drugs should be monitored more cautiously and not completely
taken away. For the people that use these medications because they lack an amount of
dopamine in the brain or because they have been diagnosed with ADHD, ADD or
narcolepsy it would be unfair to get rid of them. In order to prevent more overdoses and
addicts the only action that needs to be taken is to have them monitored more strictly.
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REBUTTAL
through their day without pain (“Are the Benefits of Prescription Drugs Worth the Risks?”). In
fact, out of the one hundred and thirty one million people that take prescriptions only eighteen
million people were reported to have abused them, which is seemingly small when the two
numbers are compared (“The Truth About Prescription Drug Abuse.”). For some people, the
risks of addiction and dependency are worth having relieved symptoms no matter what the cost
is (“Are the Benefits of Prescription Drugs Worth the Risks?”). The reason being is that not all
prescription drugs contain addictive properties and they can sometimes be the answer for life
threatening conditions such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol and even cancer (Ireland).
The risks of prescription drugs may be worth it for some, but for others it has become
ruinous. On average, forty six people die everyday from drugs that are involved with prescription
Opioids and thirty five percent of the overdoses in two thousand and seventeen were associated
with Opioids as well (“Calculating Prescription Opioid Overdose Deaths”). That alone is only
one category of medications that have addictive factors that have caused thousands of deaths
every year. Although it is believed by some that without these prescriptions they would have a
lower quality of life, there are still dangers to taking them (Ireland). The death rate of
inform their patient on the dosage of the medication, when to take it and how to take it. What the
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patient decides to do after is out of the physician’s hands (Ireland). Recently, my grandmother
has gotten hip surgery and was prescribed 10 mg of oxycodone. She took it as directed and never
experienced dependency upon the pills. She is an example of someone who takes the medication
The real issue is brought upon individuals when they experience dependency from the
medications they are prescribed. Xanax was prescribed to a woman named Patricia for her
anxiety, after taking it for a few weeks she began to crave the medication once it wore off. She
then made the executive decision to go cold turkey so that she could get it out of her system.
Within the first two days, she didn’t sleep or eat, she vomited and had hallucinations. The third
day, she became physically uncoordinated and unbalanced and the fourth day she started to have
“twitching sensations” throughout her entire body (“The Truth About Prescription Drug Abuse”).
Even though her doctor directed her on how and when to take the prescription, she still built up a
tolerance that then it turned into an addiction. Directed use doesn’t always stop the power of
addiction, every person is different and so is the way that their body reacts.
CONCLUSION
Although prescription drugs may cause more harm than good, their presence is still necessary in
order for individuals to go throughout their daily lives. In order to prevent the thousands of
deaths that occur each year, action must be taken to restrict and monitor the output of the
medications. Without immediate action, people will continue to suffer from misuse and
addiction. I believe that prescription drugs are beneficial to individuals that do not misuse the
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guided instructions for consumption and that the pharmaceutical industry needs to be more
regulated and contained to the public. If these precautions are not taken seriously then more and
more individuals will overdose in the years to come, background information of personal and
genetic history should be accounted for as well as a psychoanalysis should be performed to see if
Works Cited
2020.
Ireland, Kay. “The Pros and Cons of Prescription Drugs.” Healthfully, Healthfully.com, 05 Dec.
Feb. 2020.
Martin B., Crescent, Hales M., Gu, Quipig and Ogden L., Cynthia. “Prescription Drug Use in the
Pietrangelo, Ann and Kristeen Cherney. “The Effects of Adderall on the Body.” healthline,
www.drugfreeworld.org/course/lesson/the-truth-about-prescription-drugs/abuse-
www.rxlist.com/wellbutrin-drug.htm#description.
Wiegman, Stacy. “What Are The Pros and Cons of Prescription Drugs?” sharecare,
sharecare.com
Feb. 2020.