W3573Y (Edison) Prescription Problems

Unfortunately, in our society today, we not only have to combat illegal street narcotics, but also prescription medications used as narcotics.  Studies by the CDC show that an average of 79% of physician, outpatient and emergency visits combined resulted in a drug therapy, typically 2-3 prescriptions each.   Of these prescriptions, the most frequent class of drug prescribed were analgesics, namely painkillers.  These prescription drugs are detrimental to our society as a whole because they are highly addictive, as most are opiates.  Due to the intensely addictive nature of these drugs, even the most straight laced individuals can become addicted to painkillers after surgery or dental procedures.  Another impact these drugs have are that on the street they are particularly expensive, which leads to either patients falsifying symptoms and/or physicians providing false prescription documents in order to obtain them and make a profit off of them.  Due to the combination of addictiveness and the cost, users are also often prone to steal or perform other illegal actions in order to obtain the drugs.  Prescription drugs can put physicians in a mess of trouble.  Physicians have the pharmaceutical companies forcing them to sell their product, often times enticing them with large bonuses or vacations; and drug users on the other hand willing to lie, cheat and blackmail in order to obtain them.  So, who pays the ultimate price for this situation?  Families of the addicted users, whose lives fall apart from their loved ones lives becoming entangled in pursuit and use of said drugs?  Taxpayers, whom in the end have to pay to imprison these people or, best case scenario, pay for their sobriety treatment?

This entry was posted on 26. May 2009 at 02:13 and is filed under Introduction to Sociology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.