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Prescription Drug Abuse: Narcotics
In today's society, the debate as to whether or not prescription narcotics are necessary in certain situations is one that is fueled mainly be the tendency for patients to overuse after being prescribed these medications. In many situations, patients present with pain that is treated by their respective physicians with prescriptions drugs that fall into the category of narcotics and opiates in order for the cited pain to be treated. However, as many patients have fallen into habit in terms of overuse of such medications as well as addiction, narcotics prescription standards have become an issue that has continuously hinders true sufferers of chronic pain. In understanding the statistics related to the over-prescription of such medications, one can better understand the connection to overuse. Additionally, one can see how these facets do nothing but harm individuals who truly need these medications. In understanding these facets of narcotics prescription, one can better see that doctors should be more...
According to the federal government, a small group of doctors in the U.S. consistently prescribes hundreds of millions of dollars- worth of prescription narcotics, many of which are over-used, abused, and sold on the black market which has contributed significantly to an epidemic of addiction, crime, and death in the United States of America (Libby, 511). Additionally, over-prescription has the tendency to lead to overuse and drug abuse. Patients who have been prescribed narcotics for pain that a strong dose of Aspirin or Tylenol could essentially aid over a longer period of time are placed into the danger zone in terms of the likelihood of over-use, dependence, and eventual abuse.
Because of the statistics at hand, real sufferers of chronic pain have a significantly harder time receiving these prescriptions as well as maintaining them for extended periods of…
Works Cited
Dibble, Paul. "Solving the Narcotics Dilemma," in Medical Economics, 88(4): pp. 64-67.
February 2011. Web. Retrieved from: ProQuest Database. [Accessed on 22 November 2011].
Libby, Ronald. "Treating Doctors as Drug Dealers: The Drug Enforcement
Administration's War on Prescription Painkillers," in The Independent Review, 10(4): pp. 511-545. Spring 2006. Web. Retrieved from: ProQuest Database. [Accessed on 22 November 2011].
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