Conundrum

Savannah Zoe Amburgey-McDermott

English 12

Mrs.Parker

15 March 2017

So when you think I'm gone and you can finally be at ease, Just remember this I will

always be your disease (addiction, published June 2010) citation erro. Prescription drugs are a
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big discussion in todays news. Stories flood media everyday of some person accidently dying

because of an overdose, or families being torn apart because of a persons addiction. Accidental

death caused by prescription drug overdoses is the only epidemic that has been looked at by

each the DEA, FDA, CDC and the white house capitalization office of drug control, (CNN).

For someone who actually lives in chronic pain awkward could benefit greatly from something

like an opioid, narcotic. Prescription drugs contribute to society making surgeries possible,

relieving pain, and enabling people to control symptoms of serious medical conditions; however

they are also capable of being misused, abused and cause addiction without improving the

regulation of prescriptions being written. Good, some awkward diction.

Living with chronic pain can be very disabling, keeping people from doing simple daily

tasks such as going grocery shopping and taking their kids to the park. Going to their doctor for

pain killers may be their who? best option. If taken appropriately, the medication can allow

someone with constant pain to live freely and comfortably. Prescription drugs are never bought

over the counter. These are drugs are taken under the instruction of a doctor or another medical

practitioner; they are regulated by the law. Ideally, users of these drugs must have proof,

documents from licensed doctors to obtain and use such drugs. In reality, drug abusers have had

different ways of accessing prescription drugs illegally.

IBack in the 1850s, prescription drugs were largely unregulated. Civil War soldiers were

given great amounts of cocaine and morphine to manage their pain. Then they began prescribing

heroin for children because of the codeine that we have our cough syrups today. The first anti-

drug law was passed in San Francisco, California, which outlawed opium dens. Officials were

beginning to realize they may have a problem. After the outlaw of opium, addicts were popping
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up everywhere. There was an estimate of 25,000 opium addicts in the United States by the time

the 1900s started. (Daly, Erin Marie)

Later on, the FDA required all narcotic substances to be labeled appropriately. In 1914

Congress passed the Harrison Act which required any large doses of narcotics to be distributed

by licensed physicians and pharmacists. And in 1924 heroin was made illegal. (prescription

drug timeline) States began to make it a requirement to have anti-drug education around the

schools in the 1930s. Worried parents and schools were afraid that this would actually heighten

the risks of substance abuse and did not go through with the education. Act after act was passed

in hope that we could stop the abuse, while people who were suffering could not get the

medication they needed because of cautious doctors. The Drug Abuse and Prevention Act was

passed by Congress in 1970, leading to the creation of the Drug Enforcement Administration

(DEA) three years later. (prescription drug abuse timeline) The DEA focused on the

criminalization of illegal narcotic possession. This caused the people to turn to

methamphetamine because awkard diction in 1996, the comprehensive Methamphetamine

Control Act was passed restricting access to chemicals and equipment to manufacture meth. Cite

source?

Statistics show that over of half ofur accidental deaths in the United States are caused by

overdosing on a persons own or someone else's medicine.Source? One of the most commonly

abused prescription drug is opioids, specifically used for pain. In 2005, 2.1 million teens had

abused prescription drugs. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, pain relievers are

the prescription drug of choice and are currently being used by teens 13 years and older. The

abuse of prescription drugs is the nations most prevalent drug problem. Doctors, their patients,

and pharmacists all have a role in regulating and preventing non-medical use of prescription
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drugs. They must learn strategies to be able to treat mental illness and chronic pain, but still try

to diminish rates of abuse that have escalated greatly in this past decade. The chart on the right

shows patients who relapse between drug addiction in comparison to chronic illnesses.

(Fuhrman, Joel.) The chart below shows that 44% of americans know someone who abuses

prescription drugs. (Fuhrman, Joel.)

If someone takes their prescription drugs under the doctor's instructions, they could

possibly recover from their disease. Doctors take into account the severity of their patients

health condition as they prescribe. If patients follow the instructions of the doctor it eliminates

the possibility of drug abuse and unnecessary side effects.

Once the government began regulating

prescription drugs and criminalizing the possession

of illegal or legal drugs, drug abuse rates increased.

It's like telling a child they can't have a cookie.

When you tell them they can't have it, they want

the cookie 10 times more. Treatment could be

an option but if they don't want to go you

avoid use of casual language can't force them.

Addicts have to want to get better or they

simply are not going to get better. There is no

effective mechanism to prevent abuse. We

could try to take them away but then we risk

people not getting the medications they need. We also risk people turning to heroin as a

replacement; heroin is opium and people like it because of the cheaper prices and availability.
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Nevertheless, prescription drugs present the best opportunity to cure someone of common

diseases in the society today. Rather than doing away with them, government needs to enforce

more effective measures to prevent the drugs abuse and to ensure their use is only the right ways

and dosages.

In conclusion, Prescription drugs are harmful because people can abuse them but, there is

still no foolproof plan that can prevent addicts in this society, and we lose lives every year.

Regardless, prescriptions give hope for those who suffer from mental illness, chronic pain,

diseases. Natural drugs may be the solution for those who will lose control over their medication.

In the future, the government must come up with different ways of regulating prescription drugs,

and we already have some ideas. Such as, prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs).

PDMPs would be state-run electronic databases used to track the prescribing and dispensing of

controlled substances to patients. These would also be important tools for preventing and

identifying prescription drug misuse. Being treatment oriented may get to the core of why people

feel the need to escape reality. Hopefully, scientist in the near future can come up with a drug

that will be equivalent to chemo, and cure cancer. But time will only tell.
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Works Cited

Daly, Erin Marie. Generation Rx: A Story of Dope, Death, and America's Opiate Crisis.

Berkeley, CA: Soft Skull, an Imprint of Counterpoint, 2015. Print.

Engdahl, Sylvia. Prescription Drugs. Detroit: Greenhaven/Gale Cengage Learning, 2008. Print.

Fisher, Leonard Everett. The Doctors. Tarrytown, NY: Benchmark, 1997. Print.

Fuhrman, Joel. The End of Heart Disease: The Eat to Live Plan to Prevent and Reverse Heart

Disease. New York, NY: HarperOne, 2016. Print.

CNN. Cable News Network. Web. 15 Mar. 2017.

"NewsCAP." AJN, American Journal of Nursing 116.10 (2016): 14. Print.

Source:

http://www.familyfriendpoems.com/

poem/a-letter-from-your-disease

Savannah, you have good information, but you need to develop your current situation of the

problem. Also, you are missing sources for some of your information, which is a form of

negligent plagiarism. There are some formatting errors with citations you have. 80/100