Prescription Drug Abuse More Than Most Other Drug Abuse Combined

Drug addiction.

Drug abuse.

These words bring to mind movies with junkies shooting up, veins bulging under a dirty belt, or a seedy crack house with hollow eyed, thin, bug-eyed youngsters are hitting a crack pipe.

What about the picture of the wholesome suburb mom, driving the shiny SUV to soccer practice, yet taking her OxyContin pills prescribed to her months ago? Is that a drug addict?

How about the busy executive, stress a faithful companion, taking sleeping pills so that the worries of the day don’t scare sleep away? And not being able to sleep without them? Is that a drug addict?

Narconon Drug Rehab GA warns that the face of drug addiction is changing.

“Recent studies have shown that more people abuse prescription drugs than cocaine, heroin, hallucinogens, and inhalants combined,” comments Mary Rieser, Executive Director of Narconon Drug Rehab GA.

“With our aging baby boomers getting more prescriptions for various aches and pains, with more children raiding medicine cabinets to get prescription drugs that are easier to get than other drugs, it is little wonder.

“The drug addict now is a very young person abusing their parent’s medications for what they think is a ‘safe’ high; college students popping Ritalin or Adderral to stay awake to study for finals; people in their ‘Golden Years’ addicted to OxyContin or Percocet they were once prescribed for a sore back: these are drug addicts of today.

"But the consequences are the same. Unable to stop taking the drug, their life spirals out of control, leaving chaos and death in their wake. Unable to stop the cravings, and unable to face withdrawals, the drug addict is driven to acts of desperation."

The statistics are frightening:

According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 20 to 30 percent of drug abusers rely primarily on prescription drugs. The National Institute on Drug abuse estimated that 48 million Americans have used prescription drugs for non-medical reasons. Non-medical drug use accounts for about a half a million emergency room visits in California, for example.

Internationally, the picture is not any better. Drug action teams and police forces present a grim picture. In England, according to Drug Scope, seizures of drugs, by the police and customs, have risen from 300,000 pills between July 2003- June 2006 to 2 million between July 2006 and June 2008.

Today, more that 6 million Americans are abusing prescription drugs – that is more than the number of Americans abusing cocaine, heroin, hallucinogens, and inhalants combined.

Prescription drug abuse became a crisis practically overnight: In just five years, from 2000 to 2005, the number of Americans abusing prescription drugs rose more than 2/3 – from 3.8 million abusers to 6.4 million. Perhaps more alarming is that nearly 1 in 10 high school seniors admit to abusing powerful prescription painkillers.

Misuse of prescription drugs is second only to marijuana as the nation’s most prevalent drug problem, but the number of people abusing pain relievers for the first time exceeds the number of new marijuana users. Sadly, opioid painkillers now cause more drug overdose deaths than cocaine and heroin combined.

“We have to recognize that prescription drugs, while prescribed for innocent and helpful reasons, are becoming the fastest growing drug abuse problem we face,” concludes Ms. Rieser. “Don’t let someone become addicted to prescription drugs. If they are addicted, get help fast.”

Source: NIDA

If someone you know is drug addicted, call us.  We have a 76% success rate.

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Call Narconon Drug Rehab in Georgia at 1-877-413-3073.
      
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