Prescription Drug Abuse

Pharmacist hold the key to all the drugs sought by dealers and addicts. The problem is there is a constant struggle for retail pharmacist dealing with patients who go to a great extent to get their hands on these drugs. Pharmacist must determine whether the patient is there with the intent of feeding their addiction, or the purpose of reselling the drug or if the patient is there for a legitimate reason. It is not always easy to spot because a prescription is just a piece of paper. Doctors don't use a special type of paper when writing a prescription a lot of times with little effort an ordinary person can produce a spot on duplicate. According to one pharmacist "You have to know the doctor to catch it. You'll know they write their prescriptions one way, but then you get a different looking one." …show more content…
Over the counter drugs are the second most abused substance by americans, right after marijuana (drug abuse). There are more deaths from overdosing on prescription pain pills than both cocaine and heroin combined(Anna,2015). Data shows that since 1999, over 183,000 people have died from overdoses related to prescription opioids and that number continues to grow(centers for disease control and prevention). The problem is doctors possess the ability to prescribe any dosage of pills while pharmacist hold these drugs at their fingertips.The most common drugs that are abused are Methadone, Oxycodone(oxyContin), and Hydrocodone. According to Miranda, a pharmacist (Anna,2015) she has seen prescriptions written for 750 methadone and 120 OxyContin, which is quoted to be "enough to kill a horse”. These doctors hand out prescriptions of highly addictive drugs like its just