PRESCRIPTION DRUGS:


Beyond the top two drugs of choice: tobacco which causes 40 percent of all hospital ill- nesses, and alcohol which results in more than 50 percent of all visits to the hospital emergency rooms, it is marijuana followed by prescription drugs as the top two illicit drugs of choice. When prescription drugs are used for something other than their pre- scribed use, it’s abuse; whether it’s done one time or 100 times is irrelevant.


BY GARY PATRONE, ARCPOINT LABS OF TEMPE


BY THE NUMBERS I


n 2010, marijuana was the specific illicit drug category with the largest number of recent initi- ates among persons aged 12 or older with 2.4


million users. Nearly double, with a combined total of 4.1 million users, was prescription drug abuse including opioid pain relievers, tranquilizers, stimu- lants and sedatives. Prescription drug abuse is clearly on the rise


across all demographics. In older Americans, anti- anxiety drugs such as benzodiazepines and opioid pain relievers are leading the list. Although only 13 percent of the population, the elderly account for about one-third of the prescriptions, as reported by National Institutes of Health (NIH). Te U.S. De- partment of Health and Human Services (HHS) reports that nearly 3 million people in the 12 to 25 age group become new abusers of prescription drugs each year. Finally, one in ten high school seniors in the United States admit to abusing pre- scription drugs. Within the prescription drug group, misuse of


opioid pain relievers represents three-fourths of the overall problem. Opioids are some of the most powerful medications available, and the number of prescriptions sold to pharmacies, hospitals, and doc- tors’ offices was 4 times larger in 2010 than in 1999.


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