Prescription Drug Abuse Narcotics

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 selective in their prescribing.

The over-prescription of narcotics is an issue that continues to be one that is constantly highlighted within modern society. 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 time with refill options. Untreated pain is a serious problem in the United States and given the difficulties in measuring a condition that is untreated, estimates of the number of people affected vary, but most experts agree that tens of millions of Americans suffer from undertreated or untreated pain (Libby, 520). One significant reason why pain is undertreated, and increasingly so, is the government's decision to prosecute pain doctors who, it says, overprescribe prescription narcotics (Libby, 523). Additionally, as medical professionals, physicians have begun to roll their eyes and exchange knowing looks with staff every time they hear an individual asking for narcotics, and grown every time a narcotics refill request crosses their desk, growing more and more cynical as the belief that every patient is trying to pull a fast one on them continues to spread like wildfire (Dibble, 64). The fact is, doctors and American society as a whole have grown cynical, and this is negatively affecting those individuals who need narcotics to function in their daily lives.