The prescription pain medication dependency and abuse epidemic continues to worsen, despite warnings from medical community heavyweights over a century ago. Today, medications ranging from stimulants to sedatives are staples in the medical community and are obviously considered extremely important by Americans, judging by the 200 million opiates that were doled out last year alone.

A History Of Warning Signs

The United States’ dependency on prescription pain relievers has spiraled out of control, without a doubt. While this problem seems to have come out of nowhere, warnings have been floating around the medical community for over 100 years now. It appears that Americans’ problems with pain meds go back a century—yet despite this, we still struggle more than ever with the epidemic.

Often it occurs that physical dependency develops in prescription pain drug users without them intending to become hooked. This has been the case since powerful opiates became available for general use. For this reason, Dr. John Witherspoon, the American Medical Association’s President, wrote to his colleagues in 1900; urging his fellow doctors to avoid their widespread use, fearing the potential of illicit prescription drug use exploding. He described the use of narcotics as being responsible for “wrecking lives and happy homes, filling our jails and lunatic asylums.”

This warning comes to the spotlight more than 100 years later, after millions of prescriptions, overdoses and deaths have taken place at the hands of the powerfully addictive opiate drugs.

Prescription Drugs Serve As “Gateway” Back To Illicit Drugs

The powerful opioid morphine is often employed in the treatment of heroin addicts, despite the fact that it is as habit-forming and powerful as the drug it is being used to repel users from.

In addition to this, prescription pain relievers are abused by thousands of teens and adults alike for their powerful high. For teens and first-time drug abusers, an opiate pill is less daunting and easier to obtain than going through a drug dealer. After a while, however, the opiate’s power begins to lessen and a stronger drug is needed—i.e. heroin. Right now, the fact of illicit prescription drug abuse exploding means more people turning (or returning) to street drugs for a less expensive and more potent high.

This same story serves true for addicts receiving morphine treatment to quit heroin. Morphine is expensive—heroin is up to one tenth of the cost of some of these prescriptions. The affordable choice is to return to street drugs, leaving addicts even deeper into an addiction.

Safeguarding Your Family

The organization narconon.com recommends we begin to heed this warning message by implementing safeguards within our own families. A few tips for doing so, are:

1.    Use prescription pain medications only in situations where they are highly necessary—injuries, surgical recoveries, etc.

2.    If you or anyone in your family is prescribed a painkiller, closely monitor pill quantity and dosages. Do not give pills to your child or teen to take to school.

3.    Educate your family about the potential risks of opiate drugs, sharing pills, abusing them, etc.

4.    Properly dispose of your medications when you have any leftover pills.

Even though the problem of illicit prescription drug use is an epidemic the above steps can help to make it not so bad.

If a prescription problem is occurring presently it is important to get immediate help through narconon.com. The program has one of the highest success rates in the country when treating the problem with 76% of graduates staying off drugs permanently.

For more information on narconon.com contact us today at 800-468-6933.