Prescription drug abuse can take place in many different ways. One example is when a person uses the prescribed drug in a way that is not compliant with their doctor's instructions. Another form of prescription drug abuse is when people take drugs that were not prescribed for them. Yet another type of abuse is when people mix prescription drugs with other drugs, or with alcohol, to get a better high.
Statistical evidence shows that prescription drug abuse is reaching epidemic proportions in the United States. The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) estimates that as many as 2% of the American population have taken part in this type of abuse. That means that almost 43,000 people in the Orlando metropolitan area abuse prescription drugs.
The figures published by the NIDA are estimated because there is no way to know for certain when prescription drugs have been abused. If some form of post-dispensing tracking system were in place, it might help to cut down on abuse levels, and would certainly help to get a more accurate picture of what happens to drugs once they leave the dispensary.
Many patients will not use all the drugs they have been prescribed for a particular condition. If the condition clears up, there is no reason for them to keep taking the drug. However, there is no system in place that would encourage them to return unused drugs to the pharmacy. A small number will try to sell prescription drugs on the street. Some people will destroy excess drugs, others will keep them in case they might need them in the future, and yet others will offer them to relatives or friends.
The latter scenario seems to be particularly popular. Of more than 6 million Americans who admitted to prescription drug abuse, more than half admitted that they had got the drugs from somebody they knew.
The most widely abused drugs are the ones that are most widely prescribed. At the top of the list are the opioid drugs that are used to treat pain. Many of these drugs are derived from the opium poppy (hence the name "opioid"). The opium poppy is also the source of morphine and heroin, so the opioids share some of the addictive properties of these two potent drugs, and this makes them a problem.
The DEA categorizes drugs in one of five Schedules. The DEA determines which schedule a drug should belong in based on the drug's abuse rate, its likelihood to induce dependency, and its usefulness as a medicine. In this categorization system, drugs in Schedule I are considered the most dangerous, and those in Schedule V the least dangerous.
Many people think that drug treatment centers are only for addicts of illegal drugs. This is not so, and many people with addictions to prescription drugs also need help. Addiction to drugs affects people's ability to lead normal lives. The only way for an addict to get back to normal is to quit taking the drug.