Prescription Drug Abuse

Prescription drug addiction is at an all time high across the United States. There are more prescription junkies then there have ever been. There are quite a few reasons for this actually. With doctors more willing than ever to write out prescriptions for painkillers, anti depressants, and just about anything else that is available, it is doctors that can get a hand clap for raising the bar on prescription junkies.

Somewhere in medical school it is taught that Xanax, Vicodin, Lorcet, Lortab, OxyContin, Percocet, Percodan, Tylox, Methadone, Klonopin, Ativan, Soma, and Valium have very high addiction properties. These prescriptions are often handed out for periods of time that well extends past what would contribute to becoming addicted. It is very common for a person to have never before suffered from an addiction problem and for them to become injured; the doctor writes them enough prescription painkillers to develop an addiction to the opiate and then the doctor either cuts them off or will not supply enough of the drugs to the patient any longer. These drugs do not take very long for a person to develop a tolerance to them which means that the benefits that they used to receive from just one pill now requires four or five.

Now that this person has developed a dependency or basically became an addict they either have to find another supplier or up the ante and move on to something bigger, more available, and often cheaper. For example, it is very common for someone that is addicted to Vicodin to resort to heroin because it is easier to get and cheaper than the average price of $4 per Vicodin on the street. The new suppliers are either people that may sell them or the Internet. The Internet has become a very reliable drug dealer and counts on addicts to demand their supply.

There are millions of Internet hits by simply typing in any drug related phrase. The most difficult obstacle that one might encounter is a brief medical history conducted over the Internet and given to the “in house” physician who will then dispense your prescription; it will then be processed and sent right to your location of choice. Although sometimes these Internet pharmacies can charge more, for many it is worth it because of the availability, the privacy, and fact that they don’t have to resort to buying them illegally off of the streets. Remember, these people are usually not your common junkies so more often than not they don’t have street connections as a typical addict would.

Internet pharmacies are a growing problem. Prescription drug abuse is a serious problem. It is impossible to ascertain the exact number of websites offering illegal transactions, but this number is likely growing. While it may seem as simple as shutting these pharmacies down the problem is there are numerous actors involved in sale and distribution of products – they are hard to identify. These Internet pharmacies are located in different countries so they are very difficult to track and shut down.