Here’s a typical story of prescription drug addiction. This guy started on painkillers for a sports injury and 10 years later finally got some help from a drug addiction treatment center. He says he doesn’t know what happened. He just became addicted.

That’s not unusual. First of all, he got the painkillers from his doctor. Drugs from doctors aren’t supposed to be dangerous. Right? Nor are you supposed to turn into what is basically a heroin addict.

The article mentions a survey done in 2002 – and the situation has become much worse since then – that showed that 30 million Americans had illegally used prescription painkillers. Of course, not all of them became addicted and not all need a drug addiction treatment center but even if it was only 10%, we’d have an almost insurmountable problem in terms of the number of people we have facilities to treat.

The director of the local Drug Task Force blames it on the fact that the drugs aren’t illegal to possess and thousands of households (obviously it’s more than thousands) have them right in their medicine cabinet. While that is definitely a factor, I don’t think it’s getting down to the basic.

Finding the real source of the problem would lie more in the answer to questions like “Why do so many people have them in their medicine cabinets?” “What’s wrong with our health care system that so many people are in pain?” “Why are so many people prone to drug use, drug abuse, and prescription drug addiction?”

Realistically, there are only so many drug addiction treatment centers around. And it usually takes  several months to get someone through a program successfully – i.e. they’re actually rehabilitated and aren’t going to go back on drugs. And there are millions of people who need help.

We can help family members and friends, but until we get the answers to some of those questions and start addressing them effectively as a society, we’re not going to really resolve the problem of drug abuse – including prescription drug addiction.

If every person who knew someone with an alcohol or drug problem made sure that person got into treatment – a good drug addiction treatment center that really got the job done, not just a little detox and they’re out of there back on drugs or alcohol in no time – we’d make a serious dent in the problem.

Who will take this step?

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