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Josh Abrams
Mrs. Rutan
English IV
19 April 2016

Six Things you should know about Pill-Poppers

You can guarantee that the person reading this right now has had to deal with or knows
someone who has abused prescription drug abuse. Prescription drug abuse is seen as the
excessive use of prescription drugs for recreational purpose. Thats right, even your kids are
getting dope-sick now! All jokes aside, this is truly an epidemic due to the severity of the
addiction and the fact that so many people in the United States are doing it.
1.)Pill-popping starts young!
In the United States, the problem with pills starts very early. As stated in the prescription
drug abuse article Facts and Figures, This is a problem because of the problems that come
along with the abuse of prescription drugs combined with the group of 12-17 year olds that are
abusing them (Facts and Figures). Think about that, this starts with people your age. This
combined with the fact that, Almost 1 in every 4 teens in America say they have misused or
abused a prescription drug (Facts and Figures), make it a major epidemic with young people in
the United States.
2.) Where are the pills coming from?
Surprising to some, the majority of these young kids are snagging the prescription drugs
from their friends or relatives. As stated in the previously used article, Two-thirds of people 12
and older (68%) who have abused prescription pain relievers within the past year say they got
them from a friend or relative (Facts and Figures). The reason this could be surprising is
because they are getting the drugs from people that are close to them. A way to maybe slow this
is to hide your prescription drugs better in the household.
3.) What exactly are these pill-poppers taking?
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, The # of prescription medicine users
in 2010 was 8.76 million, the most abused prescription drug falls under 3 categories : painkillers,
tranquilizers, than stimulants (Popping Pills). This could be seen as surprising not for the fact
of that painkillers are first but tranquilizers are are more popular than stimulants. Either way this
is a major problem because of the fact that these incredibly dangerous substances even just being
taken alone are toxic for your body.

4.) What happens when you misuse these prescription drugs?

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Needless to say, abuse of prescription drugs comes with major health effects that will not
only affect the person taking them but the people around said person and even the environment
that theyre in. The medical issues related to prescription drug abuse are as follows: health
problems, addiction, accidents, poor academic performance, and legal trouble. Quoted from the
article The Dangers, Whatever your motivation whether you borrow someone elses
sedative to soothe pre-test anxiety or take a few more of your own to feel good misusing a
prescription drug can have dangerous consequences (The Dangers). Pretty straight forward,
you misuse these drugs, you will have health consequences, whether you care about that is up to
you or not.
5.) How can we prevent addiction?
A big part of the problem is that teens are starting to abuse these drugs early. An obvious
solution would be to teach parents how they can help prevent these teens. Used from the article
How to Prevent, it gives three simple rules, monitor, secure, and dispose (How to Prevent).
Monitor is to make sure you keep track of your pills and know if some may come up missing. To
secure is to keep them up high where a child cant get to them or if youre dealing with a teen
hide or lock them up so that only you can get to them. To dispose is to get rid of any unused or
expired medication properly so that your child or really anyone can not get ahold of the drugs. If
we can prevent it early then it wont be such a bad problem later on down the road.
6.) Overdosing-The Final Step.
The worst side effect from prescription drug abuse right here. As stated in the article
Prescription Drug, Prescription drug abuse causes the largest percentage of deaths from drug
overdosing. Of the 22,400 drug overdose deaths in the US in 2005, opioid painkillers were the
most commonly found drug, accounting for 38.2% of these deaths. (Prescription Drug).
Thousands die everyday because of this epidemic and that is why it needs to be focused on and
stopped, especially at a young age.
Obviously I dont need to tell you anymore why this a problem. If we can stop the
problem at the root, early age, then we can severely lower the numbers on prescription drug
abuse and addiction. Also death. Please lock your scripts up boys and girls!

Work Cited
"Popping Pills: Prescription Drug Abuse in America." Popping Pills: Prescription Drug
Abuse in America. 02 Jan. 2014. Web. 17 Mar. 2016.
<https://www.drugabuse.gov/related-topics/trends-statictics/infographics/popping-pillsprescriptin-drug-abuse-in-america>
"Facts and Figures." Rx Safety Matters. Web. 17 Mar. 2016.

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<http://rxsafetymatters.org/families-and-communities/facts-and-figures/>
McCabe, Sean E. "Misperceptions of Non-medical Prescription Drug Use:A Web Survey of
College Students." Sciencedirect. Sciencedirect, 04 May 2008. Web. 12 Apr. 2016.
<http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306460307003553>
Compton, Wilson M. "Abuse of Prescription Drugs and the Risk of
Addiction."Sciencedirect. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 18 June 2006. Web. 12 Apr. 2016.
<http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S037687160600055X>
"How to Prevent Prescription Drug Abuse and Addiction | Pitch Your Pills."Seminole
Prevention Coalition. Community Services, 10 Mar. 2016. Web. 12 Apr. 2016.
<http://seminolpreventioncoalition.org/pitchyourpills/presciption-drug-abuseprevention.html#.VuGXufkrLlU>.
"The Dangers of Misused Prescription Drugs - ULifeline." The Dangers of Misused
Prescription Drugs - ULifeline. Web. 02 May 2016.
<http://www.ulifeline.org/articles/390-the-dangers-of-misused-prescription-drugs>
"Prescription Drug Abuse Statistics - Overdoses & Deaths - Drug-Free World."
Prescription Drug Abuse Statistics - Overdoses & Deaths - Drug-Free World. Web. 09 May
2016.
<http://www.drugfreeworld.org/drugfacts/prescription/abuse-international-statistics.html>