Prescription Drug Addiction Epidemic - Where Is It Coming From?
I’m sure a lot of people are asking themselves why there’s a prescription drug addiction epidemic all of a sudden. As unpalatable as it may seem, the problem with prescription drugs isn’t really any different than the problem with street drugs - if you follow the money, you’re likely to find the true motivation. Who’s making the money on prescription drug addiction?
Well, obviously, the drug companies are number one - also, bear in mind that the more drugs are sold, the more money the drug companies make. Drug companies have a vested interest in prescription drug addiction - the longer people take them, the more money they make.
But the number two vested interest may well be the doctors who are prescribing them.
Let’s take Xyprexa, for example, the anti-psychotic usually given to people diagnosed with schizophrenia or bi-polar disorder - both of which diagnoses, by the way, have also reached epidemic proportions. In the state of Vermont, anti-psychotic drugs are the largest expense in the state’s medicaid program. In 2005, psychiatrists - the specialists who usually prescribe anti-psychotics - received an average of $20,835 from drug companies. In 2006, they received an average of $45,692. In 2007, they received $57,000 - in fact, the total paid to psychiatrists was $630,000 (that was only to 11 doctors), and that represented about one-third of the pharmaceutical industry’s $3 million spent on marketing drugs in the state of Vermont.
Am I telling you this so you’ll blow up a drug company building? No, I’m telling you this so you’ll think twice when someone - even your doctor - suggests you take drugs. And so that you’ll consider the possibility that your son, daughter, husband, wife, brother, sister, or friend is being duped. That they, too, have become victims of the marketing dollars dedicated to get people on drugs, and to keep them on them. In other words - to promote prescription drug addiction. Is is possible your friends or family, or you, need a drug addiction treatment center, not a refill on a prescription?
Some drugs save lives. Others destroy them. Learn to tell the difference. Find out about prescription drug addiction today.
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Having worked in this field for a number of years I can tell you the problem with prescription drugs and painkillers is increasing at almost epidemic levels. Many of the people coming to drug rehab have a large number of additional substances that they are abuse, to say nothing of the street drugs which are usually associated with rehab. Many times the patient doesn’t even make the connection between his condition and what he mistakenly believe are “good” drugs. All drugs are essentially poisons and have the potential of wreaking havoc.
Comment by kayakotto — July 11, 2008 @ 12:21 pm