Prescription Painkiller Drug Addiction

In the past, our adversaries in the war on drugs were dealers peddling street substances, grown in foreign lands or manufactured in basement laboratories. Many of today’s addicts are hooked on legal drugs, created and distributed by prescription drug companies.

Prescription painkillers were designed to make life more comfortable for the injured and ill. These drugs do fulfill their nobler goals, but externally they are causing a wave of addiction. The painkiller abuse epidemic is fueled by the ease that addicts can obtain their drugs. The medicine in these pills can be as addicting and as dangerous as street drugs. Painkiller addicts will go from one doctor to the next, collecting prescriptions from each of them – known as doctor shopping. They will also buy pills from people who have legitimate painkiller prescriptions. Others will forge prescriptions. The most desperate will raid the medicine cabinets of friends and family, or even rob a pharmacy.

While all of this adds up to millions of dollars of revenue on the backs of our nation’s addicts, we cannot deny the needs of the sick. We have the technology to ease people’s pain and the moral obligation to use that medicine. It is a difficult balance that must be maintained, but right now, the balance is off and it is making it easier for people to become addicted to pain killers.

A 2007 poll found that teenage use of every drug was down, except for one drug: prescription painkillers. Teen use of opiates and related prescription drugs is rising at a staggering rate. Shockingly, the sharpest rise was in teens ages thirteen to fourteen. The painkiller epidemic may be turning teens into addicts before they even leave middle school.

Oxycodone is one of the most dangerous and widely publicized pain killers. Oxycodone is a synthetic opiate, in the same chemical family as morphine and heroin. Then there is the most well-known prescription painkiller – OxyContin – sometimes called Hillbilly Heroin. Other commonly abused painkillers are Percocet and Percodan. These medicines are among the mostly commonly abused painkillers. Synthetic opiates have some of the same effects as heroin, and it is easier to use than the street drug. Abusers often crush and snort the pill for a faster, more intense high.

The abuse of painkillers has several dangerous physical effects. The body was not made to process such a high rate of toxic chemicals. Prescription abuse causes problems with the body’s filtration system: the liver and kidneys. It causes similar damage as prolonged alcoholism. The liver turns to fatty scar tissue, creating a condition called cirrhosis. Cirrhosis eventually impedes liver function causing bile and other toxic chemicals to build up in the stomach and bloodstream. Extended use of painkillers can cause a decrease in kidney function, which could eventually turn into the need for regular dialysis and chronic liver failure. Prescription painkillers are usually mixed with over the counter painkillers like ibuprofen and acetaminophen. Constant use of these drugs can lead to calcification of the kidney and kidney stones.

Prescription drug companies and the medical community need to work together to control painkiller abuse. Doctors have to find ways to share records to keep addicts from having multiple prescriptions. Health care providers should work on alternatives to the more addicting painkillers. People who are ill and have painkiller prescriptions should take care and follow the instructions. Parents of teens should hide their painkiller prescriptions and dispose of any excess pills so they do not end up in the wrong hands.