Prescription Drug Abuse Speech

Words: 774
Pages: 4

My name is Codi D Saldana, today I will be discussing the topic of Prescription Drug Abuse in the united states, and how many people are affected by this and what different age groups are affected as well. In America 2010 the population according to the 2010 census was 323,982,505 According to a survey done on the national drug use an estimated 2.4 million Americans for the first time in their life used prescription drugs for non-medical reasons. Most medications that are overly abused tend to be pain killers such as opiates that come from the poppy plant Opioids such as Codeine, OxyContin, Percocet are those in the opioid family that are highly abused.

The abuse of an opioid drug for a high can not only be irresponsible and detrimental
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Addiction is different from dependency by that of compulsive drug seeking and use witch can be most of the reasons that prescription drugs nowadays are been abused by those who may have once had been prescribed that said prescription but have since then have been stopped been prescribed. What we can do as a nation to stop the abuse of prescription drugs is as friends or family of someone we know who may be abusing is to notice the signs such as those abusing opiates may be looking for remedies for constipation, showing signs of drowsiness, not been able to feel pain at their normal levels, showing signs of confusion, pupils been …show more content…
As doctors their role can be a lot bigger in the way that they are the ones who are prescribing the medications that ware been abused by the patients. Doctors can play a big role in stopping the abuse of prescription drugs by paying attention to only the prescriptions they prescribe to their patients but maybe the signs they are exhibiting such as a rapid increase of medication needed and the unscheduled visits for refills.

Been right across the border from ciudad Juarez may raise even more problems for those who may be abusing prescription drugs in the sense that many prescriptions you might need a prescription to get in the United States may not be required in Mexico. Prescriptions such as Valium, Xanax, Clonazepam, Codeine, people assume since it is available over the counter in Mexico it will be ok in the US. Although most of the time that would be 99% true it’s always that 1% that can land you not only in trouble with the federal law but also land you with problems with your health.
What I believe is that the Doctors prescribing these narcotics that are been overly abused to the level of dependency that they carry is they should stop prescribing them to patients who can easily fake symptoms of that said disease such as someone who may fake having bronchitis just to acquire prescription cough medicine such as promethazine with codeine