Prescription Drug Abuse: Substance Abuse Facts
by marsmet461
If you were to investigate substance abuse facts from the government’s department of defense, you would find the startling figures. Drug abuse has consumed the lives of so many of our youths and adults. Millions of people neglect their health to all kinds of drugs and alcohol. They also indulge in prescription pill abuse. The individuals who abuse prescription drugs also need treatment because they are tolerant and dependent of drugs and will go to any measures to get it.
There are about seven million people in the United States who abuse prescription pills according to the government. This figure comes to be more than the combination of people that abuse other hard core drugs such as cocaine, heroin, and ecstasy. The number of people who abused drugs heightened since the year 2000 when it was three million. Over a period of six years, it rose to seven million and that is a high figure to swallow.
People who abuse prescribed pills do so for various reasons, but in most cases, it is because they want to hide their mental and physical pain. There are many resulted deaths from people who over dose on prescription pills, alcohol, cocaine and heroin.
It also affects teenagers and that is scary. Substance abuse facts report that an estimated one in every ten teenagers who go to high school abuse prescribed pills especially during their last year of school. The outrageous truth is that an estimated forty percent of these teenagers don’t realize how destructive this behavior is to their health, well being and education. Parents also put up with it. They would rather their children take prescribed pills rather than other heavy drugs. However, what they don’t know is that it has the same effect on the body and the mind.
The most widespread of all prescribed pills that is abused is hydrocodone. This counts for an estimated three quarter of the prescribed drug abuse problem that is hitting the United States. About an estimated twenty five percent emergency hospital cases are connected to drug over dose.
According to many substance abuse facts, there are so many tell tale signs that people begin abusing prescribed drugs for so many different reasons, but no one knows for sure. Some begin the abuse process when their doctor’s have prescribed certain medication that they rely on so much that it becomes an addiction to get rid of pain and treat injuries.
They become reliant on the drugs and it turns out to be a part of their daily lives. Doctors should be responsible for giving prescribed medication to patients on an ongoing basis without finding out if it is really necessary or not.
Some people consume anti-depressants to treat their anxiety problems and become addicted to it. Drug rehab treatment is helpful in getting those individuals to stop the abuse process. They are taught how to handle their anxieties and depression in other ways that are safe and meaningful.
In some cases, an individual may be abusing prescribed medication that has side effects and this result in more prescribed medication to counteract the side effects. Thus it becomes a revolving process and no end in sight.
Prescription Drug Abuse: Drug czar, senator will reveal strategy
National drug czar Gil Kerlikowske will be in Columbus on Monday, joining U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown to roll out a “National Drug Control Strategy.”
Read more on The Columbus Dispatch
More Prescription Drug Abuse Information…