America the Addicted Nation
Addiction is a lethal epidemic that plagues modern America. It is prevalent amongst all strata of society, and has no regard for race, color, ethnicity, or gender. It affects rich and poor, young and old, the educated and the ignorant. It comes in myriad varieties and takes on numerous forms. Some appear visibly harmful; others bear far more subtle implications. While it is undeniable that certain addictions invite more dangers than others—such as those that wreak havoc upon a person’s body or mind—many addictions are covert, expressed simply as incessant repetitions of an action or in the persistent nagging of a thought that preoccupies an individual’s mind regardless of its appropriateness or lack thereof. Yet, …show more content…
This is frequently the case with prescribed medications that while technically legal, result in fatalities. Victoria Bekiempis in her article America 's Prescription Drug Addiction Suggests a Sick Nation weighs in on this fact when she points out, “Medication overdoses have come to exceed car crashes as the nation’s top cause of accidental death,” (Bekiempis, 2012). Is it possible that addiction has become such a serious epidemic that it has brought America to the point that individuals are now safer on freeways than when left to their own self-medicating …show more content…
Frequently, it is large pharmaceutical companies and corporations who spearhead endeavors to flood the market with a variety of substances that will profit them. Richard Juman weighs in on this fact in his article, Doped-Up Nation: How America Became a Country of Addicts. He points out that “the alcohol industry takes in over $100 billion a year, and Big Tobacco earns $35 million,” (Juman, 2012). Such statistics highlight the underlying element that propels the production and proliferation of such substances: greed. It demonstrates the clear economic advantages that pharmaceutical and tobacco corporations reap from providing excessive and harmful substances. It is, after all, in the best interest of their pocketbooks to continue supplying such addictive substances, for as long as they continue to do so America will continue to provide an insatiable demand through its endless supply of
Addiction is a lethal epidemic that plagues modern America. It is prevalent amongst all strata of society, and has no regard for race, color, ethnicity, or gender. It affects rich and poor, young and old, the educated and the ignorant. It comes in myriad varieties and takes on numerous forms. Some appear visibly harmful; others bear far more subtle implications. While it is undeniable that certain addictions invite more dangers than others—such as those that wreak havoc upon a person’s body or mind—many addictions are covert, expressed simply as incessant repetitions of an action or in the persistent nagging of a thought that preoccupies an individual’s mind regardless of its appropriateness or lack thereof. Yet, …show more content…
This is frequently the case with prescribed medications that while technically legal, result in fatalities. Victoria Bekiempis in her article America 's Prescription Drug Addiction Suggests a Sick Nation weighs in on this fact when she points out, “Medication overdoses have come to exceed car crashes as the nation’s top cause of accidental death,” (Bekiempis, 2012). Is it possible that addiction has become such a serious epidemic that it has brought America to the point that individuals are now safer on freeways than when left to their own self-medicating …show more content…
Frequently, it is large pharmaceutical companies and corporations who spearhead endeavors to flood the market with a variety of substances that will profit them. Richard Juman weighs in on this fact in his article, Doped-Up Nation: How America Became a Country of Addicts. He points out that “the alcohol industry takes in over $100 billion a year, and Big Tobacco earns $35 million,” (Juman, 2012). Such statistics highlight the underlying element that propels the production and proliferation of such substances: greed. It demonstrates the clear economic advantages that pharmaceutical and tobacco corporations reap from providing excessive and harmful substances. It is, after all, in the best interest of their pocketbooks to continue supplying such addictive substances, for as long as they continue to do so America will continue to provide an insatiable demand through its endless supply of