The Hidden Addiction: Prescription Painkillers Today many illnesses are classified as a disease, such as cancer, diabetes, cystic fibrosis; these are not questioned. Scientists and neurologists tend to disagree about classifying addiction as a disease, which can be a reason society has not accepted addiction as a disease. Addiction needs to be recognized as a disease; prescription drugs are abused 51% more than illicit drugs (“Monitoring the Future”). Relapse rates of addiction appear similar to hypertension, asthma, diabetes and other chronic diseases. Better regulation and education methods need to be developed to monitor the distribution of prescription drugs and enforced to prevent future abuse and addiction. Addiction is recognized as a compulsive engagement which results in rewarding stimuli by the transmitters the drugs
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Specifically that prescription painkillers are less addictive, in fact they are just as dangerous as illicit drug abuse. The FDA label and approval does not make them any safer when abused. Prescription drugs need to be stored in a safe area with limited access. In a recent 2015 survey it revealed that high school seniors abused 7.7% of prescription drugs rather than 5.4% of illicit opioids (“Monitoring the Future”).Commonly left in an open access medicine cabinet where they are available to anyone. The only people who should be taking the drugs are those who are prescribed it. “Many well-meaning parents do not understand the risk associated with giving prescribed medication to a teenager or another family member for whom the medication was not prescribed” (“Education,” Par.4). Those who are abusing prescription drugs often go unnoticed, they tend to begin with an actual prescription. This is common after a surgery or injury, they become dependent on the drug which leads to
Specifically that prescription painkillers are less addictive, in fact they are just as dangerous as illicit drug abuse. The FDA label and approval does not make them any safer when abused. Prescription drugs need to be stored in a safe area with limited access. In a recent 2015 survey it revealed that high school seniors abused 7.7% of prescription drugs rather than 5.4% of illicit opioids (“Monitoring the Future”).Commonly left in an open access medicine cabinet where they are available to anyone. The only people who should be taking the drugs are those who are prescribed it. “Many well-meaning parents do not understand the risk associated with giving prescribed medication to a teenager or another family member for whom the medication was not prescribed” (“Education,” Par.4). Those who are abusing prescription drugs often go unnoticed, they tend to begin with an actual prescription. This is common after a surgery or injury, they become dependent on the drug which leads to