What Are Prescription Drugs?

Prescription Drugs – who would have known that the random pills and potions in your medicine cabinet would end up competing with marijuana for your kid’s attention and their addiction? Well it just so happens that those unassuming pills and potions once thought harmless are much more deadly than they look and they are fast becoming America’s new favorite drug of choice. It’s unfortunately true.

It’s all over the news. It’s in the papers, it’s the topic of the discussion on prime time specials and it’s all over the internet on blogs and websites. The President is talking about it. Prescription Drug abuse is the enemy.

What Are Prescription Drugs?

Prescription Drug Addiction

We all have some common knowledge of prescription medication; most of us has some old bottle of pills we never finished from a pain, ache or mental illness we may have suffered from at one time just sitting harmlessly on the shelf of our bathroom medicine cabinet. Well unfortunately these are the enemy, especially if you have teens. Although marijuana remains the all-time the number one drug of choice among teens, prescription drugs are running a very close second and if taken for granted any longer I predict it a very short time prescription drugs will surpass marijuana and become the most abused drugs in the country.

Basically prescription drugs are any “licensed medicine that is regulated by legislation to require a prescription before it can be obtained.” Not to be confused with over-the-counter drugs or OTC’s which can be obtained without a prescription (and are just as dangerous), prescription drugs are those prescribed by a doctor but can also be obtained illegally. Different jurisdictions have different definitions of what constitutes a prescription drug. The proper dispensation of prescription drugs should include a monograph (in Europe, a Patient Information Leaflet or PIL) that gives detailed information about the drug.

According to the National Drug Intelligence Center, Prescription Drugs are described as “a category of psychotherapeutics that comprises prescription-type pain relievers, tranquilizers, stimulants, and sedatives.” They are says the NDIC, “among the substances most commonly abused by young people in the United States. Prescription drugs are readily available and can be obtained quite easily by teenagers. They (Teens) just want to get high and have a good time. But little do they know these drugs used improperly are a very serious health risks.  Increasingly younger adolescents obtain prescription drugs from classmates, friends, and family members, or they steal the drugs from school medicine dispensaries and from people for whom the drug had been legitimately prescribed.

Who Can Prescribe Prescription Drugs?

Prescribing Prescription Drug

In the United States, the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act define a Prescription drug as those drugs authorized by veterinarians, dentists, optometrists, medical practitioners, and advanced practice nurses. It is generally required that Doctor (MD, DO, PA, OD, DPM, NMD, ND, DVM, DDS, or DMD), or Psychologists, a Nurse Practitioners and other APRNs write the prescription.

A basic-level registered nurse, a medical assistant, EMT, psychologists or your social workers, are not authorized to write a drug prescription ever.

Over-the-counter drugs (OTC) are drugs used to treat conditions not necessarily requiring care from a health care professional. They have been proven to meet higher safety standards for self-medication by patients. Lower strength drugs are often approved for OTC use. Higher strengths require a prescription.

Physicians can also legally prescribe drugs for uses other than those specified in the FDA approval; this is known as off-label use. Drug companies don’t often market drugs for off-label uses.

Prescription drug abusers may feel pleasure, euphoria, drowsiness, more energy, and other effects depending upon the drug. Teens can experience dangerous side effects. Prescription drugs taken as prescribed by a physician can and will successfully treat a variety of mental or physical conditions. But when abused, these prescription drugs can alter the brain’s activity and be mentally and physically addictive. (Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, NHSDA.)

“Most people understand that there are times when the proper medication is life saving and necessary. Some ailments such as diabetes require long-term maintenance, but not everything can be treated with pill. Let’s get wise. There is no pill to bring the dead back to life or to cure young people who have become addicted.” Mary Rieser, Narconon of Georgia.

Fighting The Fight Against Prescription Drugs

Narconon Of Georgia

Narconon of Georgia has been fighting drug addiction in Georgia for 11 years. But then the drugs were the illicit street drugs of the monsters and boogiemen. Heroin and Cocaine were the main drugs abuse by many with a few prescription pills and potion. But today these drugs have taken a back seat to what’s in the medicine cabinet says Rieser.

Talk to your kids and not at them. Don’t be to adult that you can’t get down on their level if only for a moment to get a better understanding of what the trends are. Teens today can be illusive and let’s just say sneaky, but a noisy parent is better than a parent who just does not know.

Educate yourself about the dangers of prescription and OTC drug abuse. Discuss these risks with your kids. Kids need to hear you say that getting high on legal prescription and OTC drugs is just as dangerous as getting high on street drugs.

Kids who learn about drug risks from their parents are half as likely to use drugs as kids who haven’t had that conversation with their parents.

Make sure you use drugs as the doctor intended. Stay involved with your kids. Don’t let them go through middle school and into high school without your guidance. Talk with them daily. Be honest in your conversation with them about prescription and OTC drug abuse. Know what you are talking about. Know the facts so you can clear up wrong or bad information. Peer pressure is just as deadly as the drugs when it is abused. Don’t make it all a lecture. Listen to your children. If they have questions and comments answer them truthfully. Let them know that getting high with prescription and OTC medication is not safer than getting high with illicit street drugs. In most cases it can be more dangerous.

Did you know that your child is more likely to be offered drugs by a friend than a stranger? It’s true. They can be exposed to drugs as early as age 12. Real friends don’t influence bad decisions.

There is much ado about prescription drugs. Get the facts.

Michael Bonds, Bauder College About The Author Michael Bonds is a Criminal Justice Senior at Bauder College in Atlanta Georgia. He is currently doing his externship at Narconon of Georgia He is an Activist and former Youth Counselor from Boston Massachusetts. He is the author of “Gunz, Poems & Rosez, the Experience Strength and Hope of Michael Warrior Bonds

Residents of treatment facilities will undoubtedly fall back into the correctional system and addiction related deaths will increase if the state reduces or eliminates residential treatment.  Although outpatient treatment helps some, many addicts require being removed from their environment and placed into a structured residential facility in order to initially get off drugs and alcohol. The state should redirect budget cuts or, at least, reduce the cuts to residential treatment. It costs taxpayers twice as much for an individual to be in the corrections system than in state funded treatment.

Even though the state of Maine has a rate of alcohol and drug addiction eight times higher than the rest of the nation, budget cuts there may soon force the closure of 10 out of 13 residential treatment centers, the Maine Public Broadcasting Network reported March 9.

Maine governor Paul Le Page is proposing to cut $5.6 million from the state’s substance abuse treatment programs. Most treatment providers say the cuts will be so deep that they will have to stop operating.

“It’s the classic pennywise-pound foolish, because we treat people at less than half the cost of the corrections community,” said Roger Prince of Serenity House, a substance abuse treatment program that is over 40 years old.

“So what do we want to do? Do we want to close this place down and send [our clients] back to jail or to the emergency room? It makes no sense to me,” he said.

According to a March 9 story in the Bangor Daily News, 40 percent of the Wellspring treatment program’s budget, or over $500,000, will vanish with the cuts. “There is no way I can make that up from other sources,” said Pat Kimball, the agency’s executive director.

http://www.jointogether.org/news/headlines/inthenews/2011/maine-eliminates-residential.html

Narconon hopes that Maine will reconsider their enormous cuts to residential treatment funding.

Narconon Drug Rehabilitation will continue to treat addicts residentially with high rates of success in Georgia, Michigan, California and Oklahoma.

NARCONON SAYS WELL DONE

Narconon says WELL DONE to all those health advocates who worked actively against a proposal wherein the federal government would have changed recommendations for alcohol consumption.  The proposed changing could have encouraged more drinking and we certainly don’t need that when we already have enough problems with alcohol.

The dropping of the proposal also shows that we can all MAKE A DIFFERENCE in the quality of our lives.  We don’t have to put up with more drunks behind the wheels or drugged out zombies walking the street.  We really don’t. Read the article from Join Together and learn how we all made a difference on this one and let’s plan for the next topic.  K2?  Bathsalts?  What will it be?

“The federal government has stepped back from its risky proposal last year to change its recommendations on alcohol consumption in a way that could have inadvertently encouraged heavier drinking and more health problems for Americans.

Last year, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Department of Agriculture (USDA) proposed a significant change to its guidelines on alcohol for its forthcoming dietary guidelines, last updated in 2005. Rather than stick with its past recommendation of limiting daily alcohol to two drinks per day for men and up to one drink per day for women as it had done in the past, an advisory committee had proposed a guideline based on average weekly consumption.

Anyone who followed the weekly average guideline who drank every day would’ve arrived at a reasonable two drinks/day for men and one drink/day for women. But as Timony S. Naimi, M.D., M.P.H. of Boston Medical Center pointed out last year, most Americans don’t drink daily: over 75 percent drink only two to three days a week.

“So in fact,” Naimi wrote, “the net effect of the proposed change amounts to an endorsement for most men to consume up to 4 drinks and for most women to consume up to 3 drinks on days they actually consume alcohol.”

He went on to say, “Relaxing guidelines delineating ‘moderate’ drinking is not like recommending someone take more vitamins. Alcohol is the third leading preventable cause of death in the U.S., and causes many net excess deaths even assuming a cardio-protective effect among those with low average consumption.””

ttp://www.jointogether.org/blog/posts/2011/federal-dietary-guidelines.html

Narconon of Georgia is happy to report on some good news for once in the field of drug and alcohol restriction.  And of course, we want to mention that the best solution for all of this is drug and alcohol education.

For those who still think alcohol needs to be part of their daily diet, Narconon drug rehab is here to help.

Narconon of Georgia has received information from local sources that there have been a few severe incidents, including death, locally as a result of “bath salts” as described in this article.  While we have not had anyone admitted to Narconon for bath salt abuse, our clients claim they had heard about the fake drug from a few of their friends.  Fortunately, we are able to warn our clients here about the dangers and get them to stay away.  After graduating from our program, they are not going to want drugs anyway.  However, it is important that the word be gotten out to anyone who might think that this is the next new fun things.  Here is the article:

“The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) issued a nationwide warning about the dangers of legal synthetic drugs often marketed as bath salts while various states moved to ban them, the Associated Press (AP) reported Feb. 2.

The powdered stimulants – sold online, in gas stations and drug paraphernalia stores as bath salts and plant food under names like “Ivory Wave” — are said to produce highs like cocaine, ecstasy, and methamphetamines. Active ingredients include 3,4-methylenedioxypyrovalerone (known as MPDV) and mephedrone. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not approved them for human consumption, but they have not been banned by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

White House drug czar Gil Kerlikowske said the so-called “bath salts” can cause “chest pains, increased blood pressure and heart rate, agitation, hallucinations, extreme paranoia and delusions,” according to the AP. So far this year, 251 calls have been made about them to the American Association of Poison Control Centers, compared to 236 similar calls for all of last year.”

http://www.jointogether.org/news/headlines/inthenews/2011/drug-czar-issues-bath.html

Narconon has learned that the best way to tackle a new drug trend is to bring it to the attention of families and individuals in the community.  We can’t leave it to officials to handle this sort of thing.  They already have their hands full with crimes created from substance abuse of many types.  And we can’t leave it to the manufactures of the products.  Their ethics level is a proven  to be low.

For those who need treatment for bath salts or any other drug of abuse, Narconon drug rehab is one of the best solutions available.

Oxycontin

Narconon learned today that it has been reported by coshoctontribune that Purdue’s patent for OxyContin will expire in 2013.  What this means is that generic versions can freely hit the market in 2013.  The article voiced warnings of enforcement officials that unless action is taken now, the prescription drug abuse situation is going to deteriorate. Since 6000 people died in a 4 year period from unintentional overdose in Ohio it is hard to fathom the situation getting any worse- and yet that is what predictably will happen in Ohio and all over the country if drastic measures are not taken.  Here is the article:

“COLUMBUS — Ohio has a number of obstacles to confront in its fight against prescription drug abuse, law enforcement officials told the Ohio Prescription Drug Abuse Task Force on Wednesday.

Time is not a luxury the state has, Portsmouth Police Chief Charles Horner said. The situation likely will deteriorate if Ohio can’t turn the tide before 2013, when Purdue Pharma’s patent protection on OxyContin expires and cheaper generic versions will flood the market, he said.

The CentralOhio.com series Prescription to Addiction revealed about 6,000 people died in Ohio from unintentional overdoses — involving both legal and illegal drugs — from 2004 to 2008. The death toll has been increasing steadily, hitting 1,438 in 2008, representing a 6.4 percent increase from 2007, according to the most recent data from the Department of Health. Prescription drugs, especially pain-relieving opiates, and heroin are the fastest growing lethal drugs of choice.”

http://www.coshoctontribune.com/article/20100624/NEWS01/6240302/Law-enforcement-officials-want-quicker-Rx-drug-investigations?odyssey=nav|hea

Narconon is asking officials to take a long hard look at the situation and extricate from any special interests groups that are perpetuating the problem.  What we see at our state capitols are scores and scores of pharmaceutical reps and what we see in law enforcement are efforts to undue some of the disastrous consequences of big pharma products.  Somehow the two arms of the government aren’t working together and people are dying.

Whatever the reason, Narconon drug rehab does not ignore the fact that failure to address prescription drug abuse, particularly to opiates, can mean death.   Every day we address the problem of prescription drug abuse successfully.  Some abusers are lucky and are not becoming statistics, though we are nowhere near reversing the trend.

Whatever pain these parents are trying to alleviate with their prescriptions, cannot come close to the pain of losing a child to overdose.  Additionally, kids are growing up in some households where prescriptions are just a matter of fact of life and they will take that example with them into adult life.  Here is the article:

“Children five years old and younger account for 69 percent of visits made to the emergency room in 2008 for accidental ingestion of drugs — and adults should take heed, HealthDay News reported Oct. 15.

According to a national survey of general hospitals performed by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), children age five and younger made up 68.9 percent of an estimated 100,340 emergency room visits for accidental drug consumption. The survey did not include children’s or other specialty hospitals.

The vast majority of the emergency room visitors were three years or younger: 14.4 percent were three-year-olds; about 42.3 percent were two-year-olds; and 29.5 percent were one-year-olds.

The children ingested a broad variety of drugs, although only one percent of their visits were related to ingestion of illegal drugs or alcohol; all others were for pharmaceuticals, including prescription drugs.”

http://www.jointogether.org/news/research/summaries/2010/most-drug-related-er-visits.html

Narconon promotes drug education at the earliest possible age for all children across the country.  What many kids are learning at home, needs to be replaced with accurate information on the real dangers of drugs – any drugs – whether they are in mommy and daddy’s medicine cabinet or not.

For those kids who don’t get the message soon enough, Narconon drug treatment will be there for them, if they are lucky enough to find it.

Success in Drug Rehab

Before coming to Narconon of Georgia my life was in shambles.  I had gone through 3 DUI’s, and the third almost took my life.  I had used every street drug under the sun; smoked marijuana on a daily basis for 20 years and enjoyed using mushrooms.  After losing my right eye in a construction accident in May of 2009, my life became uncontrollable.  My family became distant, I could not work and the debt that had accumulated worsened.  I knew something had to be done to get my life back.  With family support I started looking at drug rehab programs.  After searching over 10 different addiction treatment centers, and realizing that a 30 day program would not cut it, a friend pointed me in the direction of Narconon of Georgia. 

Upon arrival, I was greeted with open arms.  Starting the program, my life changed began to change a little with each step.  I regained my health and person power back completely.  I am truly grateful that Narconon of Georgia exists, without it I would not have what I have today.  Simply put,  I have a happy and productive life in all the important areas.

Drug paraphernalia

 This law maker in Miami is right.  Getting drug paraphernalia out of the convenience stores is a good place to start in dealing with the addiction problem.  Along with paraphernalia there are the crack, marijuana and methamphetamine dealers lurking around the store.  The next stop for many of these customers is jail or addiction treatment.  Cleaning these places up will make neighborhoods safer too.

“TALLAHASSEE — A reformed crack addict-turned-lawmaker is targeting the instrument of his affliction: the glass pipe.

This session, Rep. Darryl Rouson, D-St. Petersburg, has been rallying support to pass a bill that could take bongs, water pipes and maybe hookahs off tobacco store shelves. It cleared its last Senate committee this week.

“You know how people say there’s nothing like a reformed smoker or reformed addict?” Rouson said. “I’m dedicated to freeing communities of substance abuse, and these shops seemed like a good place to start.”

Narconon of Georgia offers drug education and rehabilitative services for anyone who is suffering from addiction.  To break the cycle of addiction in your life or the life of a loved one, our intake counselors will help make the transition into drug rehab comfortable and efficient. 

Join the 76% who are now living life drug free because of Narconon of Georgia.

Source

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/04/10/1572623/lawmaker-pushes-ban-on-drug-paraphernalia.html#ixzz0koXNC5RL

Addiction and Kids

Kids being raised with the darkness of addiction around them points out the fact that unless something is done to quickly halt the trend of drug abuse, we are walking into a new dark ages.  And at current rates of escalating addiction, not many people will be aware enough to turn the situation around.  The population will be too doped up to pull itself out.

Whether it is alcohol, methamphetamine, cocaine, prescription drugs or heroin – these drugs don’t mix with raising children.  In order to bring a screeching halt to the situation (and it needs to be screeching) any kind of health care plan must include drug prevention and effective addiction treatment.  Hopefully it is not too late.

“MEDFORD (AP) — Adrianna Poot didn’t want to pass on her parents’ painful legacy of drug use, child abuse and neglect. But she did.

‘A child’s ability to explore his world in a positive manner stems from feeling safe and secure,” Gramley said. ‘When children haven’t been able to develop that trust, they don’t explore. And there’s no reason to trust if your diaper is never changed or you are not fed adequately or you cried yourself to sleep because you were hungry.”

The cycle of addiction is difficult to overcome simply by will power alone.  Addiction treatment provides services to help the one addicted find ways to break the cycle of addiction and supply practical tools for becoming a productive member of society.  If you or your loved one needs the services of a drug rehab, our referral specialists will help guide you to the treatment center that will help you become free from the chains of addiction. 

Narconon of Georgia has a 76% success rate for those who successfully complete the program.  Our trained staff and volunteers will help the transition into drug rehab be as easy and painless as possible.  Intake counselors are available to help you begin your path to a drug free life. 

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Alcohol Awareness

Alcohol Awareness month is a good time to take a look at our associates and the friends of our kids.  Do they drink heavily?   If they do, chances are there is trouble around them.  Alcohol abusers like to hang around alcohol abusers and only by pulling someone out of their circle and getting them into effective addiction treatment will the spell be broken.

Kids will drink if their friends drink.

During Alcohol Awareness month it is good to remember that we are known by the company that we keep. 

“The amount of alcohol you consume seems to be directly related to the drinking habits of your social group, according to a new study.

HealthDay News reported April 5 that researchers focused on data from 12,000 participants in the Framingham Heart Study, who were asked about their drinking and social networks over the 30-year span of the study. They found that those who had friends or relatives who drank heavily were 50 percent more likely to drink heavily themselves.

Moreover, even three degrees of separation — having friends of friends who drank heavily — appeared to influence individual alcohol consumption.

Narconon of Georgia offers drug education and rehabilitative services for those who are struggling with alcohol addiction.  Our 76 % success rate shows that the addiction cycle can be broken and you or your loved one will live a healthy alcohol free life. 

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