Do you still believe that prescription abuse does not affect all of society?
Well, I have a homework assignment for you.
Go speak to someone you know, anyone anyone you know. Better yet, go to speak to a total stranger. Ask them if they have a story about someone they know who was harmfully affected by narcotic abuse.
Then go to the comments section and let me know what you found.
Because personally, I have yet to find somebody that doesn’t have a story.
The truth is, prescription drug abuse affects everyone in this country….
Amazingly enough, there are no security measures in place to stop the abuse. Right now there is no effective solution to track all controlled narcotics being prescribed – with accurate and pro-spective data. The healtchare industry is losing billions of dollars annually because of this. There are over 300,000 “at-risk doctors” in the USA. Hospitals experience 8-10 overdoses a day from the misuse or abuse of narcotics. Physicians are at a loss to stop doctor shoppers.
Here are some more staggering statistics from the White House ONDCP:
- By 2009, drug-induced deaths had become the number one cause of injury death in America, with the 39,147 drug-induced deaths exceeding the number of deaths from motor vehicle crashes (36,216).
- The rate of overdose deaths involving prescription pain relievers experienced a nearly four-fold increase from 1999-2008.
- In 2008, for every one death involving prescription pain relievers, there were also eight treatment admissions for abuse, 31 emergency department visits for misuse or abuse, 125 people who abused or were dependent on prescription pain relievers and 838 people who used prescription pain relievers non-medically during the year.
- Enough prescription pain relievers were prescribed in 2009 to medicate every American adult with a typical dose of 5mg of hydrocodone every four hours for an entire month.
- Every day, more than 7,000 people 12 years and older initiate use of a controlled substance pharmaceutical drug for non-medical purposes. That is over 2.5 million new users a year.
(SOURCE)
Those are staggering statistics. And that is the reality that we now face. Prescription drug abuse is a national epidemic. Thousands of young people are trying prescription drugs for the first time in their lives, every single day. Thousands more are hurting themselves or dying for no good reason. It is an issue that affects us all.
Please share your story in the comments below.
Thank you.
