Ashley Gantt

ENG – 122

November 1, 2019

Regulating Prescription Drugs

It seems like everyone has someone in their life who is addicted to drugs. Whether is it is

from prescription drugs or street drugs, the majority of people had a prescription for opioids at

one point in their life. Prescription drugs need to be regulated. There are many problems in

today’s world because there are not stricter laws on regulating them. Drug overdoses are at an

all-time high, it is easy to purchase drugs over the internet, and teens are more likely to use other

who are prescribed opioids are only a few of the issues that need to be addressed.

There are many physicians who over prescribe prescription pain medications. Many

people this is part of the opioid epidemic going in the United States currently. “An estimated 6.5

million individuals currently abuse prescription drugs in the United Sates” (Bagalman 1).” This

is an astronomical number, and something needs to be done. It is astounding there are people

responsible for regulating the sale of these drugs, as well as the physicians prescribing them, and

there are still so many physicians over prescribing them. Prescription drug companies are still in

the market for making just like any other business. The downside of this is that sometimes they

may lose sight of actually trying to help people. “Unlike policy on street drugs, federal policy on

prescription drug abuse is complicated by the need to maintain access to prescription-controlled

substances (PCS) for legitimate medical use” (Bagalman 1). It is hard for the government to try

and control prescription drugs because there are still people out there who actually need the

medication. There has to be a middle ground somewhere or people are going to continue
overdosing and dying. Families are losing too many family members to the terrible disease of

addiction and anything that could help could make a big difference.

It is entirely too easy to purchase prescription drugs over the internet. This should not

even be possible for patients. There are some websites that do not even ask for a prescription. “In

2004, CASA and Beau Dietl & Associates (BDA) investigated the availability of controlled

prescription drugs over the internet and found hundreds of Web sites offering these addictive

drugs for sale without requiring a prescription and without regard to age. (Drug abuse 1). This

means even children and teenagers are able to go online and purchase any kind of drugs they

want through certain websites. “Between 1991 and 2003, rates of lifetime steroid abuse among

high school students increased 126%, with abuse among girls up by nearly 350%, compared to

66% among boys” (Drug abuse 1). This goes to show that there is an opioid problem within

teenagers. This also can lead to harder drugs for teenagers because they become used to the

opioids and they think they need something more. Eventually someone taking any kind of drugs

whether its legal or illegal will build up some kind of tolerance to them. Once this happens, that

person will need to take more to either relieve the pain they are actually having or if they are just

taking them to get high then they will need more to get high.

Another issue arising with prescription abuse is people are intentionally hurting their

animals just to get their hands on a prescription. People are abusing their animals and then in

return they take them to the vet and from there the animal is given a prescription whether that is

for pain or healing. The owners are then taking the pets prescription because they have an

addiction to pain medicine. This has become a recent issue due to the fact that providers are now

being strictly watched when giving out pain medication and now patients are unable to receive

the pain killers as easy as they once were. “Opioid prescriptions from the University of
Pennsylvania’s School of Veterinary Medicine rose 41 percent between 2007 and 2017, even

though the annual number of visits increased by just 13 percent. (Thompson 2) For someone to

intentionally hurt and abuse their animals just to receive pain medication shows an all-time high

of the crisis that is the society today. “There appear to have been confirmed cases of owners

deliberately injuring their pets to obtain opioids. We have heard more veterinarians share that

they suspect some pet owners may be using their pet’s medications and asking for refills in

advance of when those should be needed, or that they’ve lost or spilled mediations, but this is

anecdotal” (Thompson 3)

This argument shows that prescription drugs need to be better regulated. Drug overdoses

are at an all-time high because there is not a better regulation of prescription drugs. Pet owners

are physically abusing their animals to get pain pills from their veterinarians. It is too easy to

purchase prescription drugs over the internet. All of these are great reasons why they should be

regulated.
 Works Cited

Bagalman, Erin, et al. "PRESCRIPTION DRUG ABUSE *." Journal of Drug Addiction,
Education, and Eradication, vol. 10, no. 4, 2014, pp. 459-480. ProQuest,
https://login.proxy039.nclive.org/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/170951
3076?accountid=10163.

Drug Abuse; Report Examines Controlled Prescription Drug Abuse." Life Science Weekly, Aug
02, 2005, pp. 607. ProQuest,
https://login.proxy039.nclive.org/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/196108
994?accountid=10163.

FDA. Drug makers Failed to Act After Program showed Providers Inappropriately Prescribed
Fentanyl, Study Finds. The Advisory Board Company, Washington, 2019. ProQuest,
https://login.proxy039.nclive.org/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/218392
5953?accountid=10163.

Frank, Richard G. "Government Commitment and Regulation of Prescription Drugs." Health

Affairs, vol. 22, no. 3, 2003, pp. 46-8. ProQuest,
https://login.proxy039.nclive.org/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/204498
856?accountid=10163, doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.22.3.46.

Gassman, Audrey L., Christine P. Nguyen, and Hylton V. Joffe. "FDA Regulation of
Prescription Drugs." The New England Journal of Medicine, vol. 376, no. 7, 2017, pp.
674-682. ProQuest,
https://login.proxy039.nclive.org/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/188417
4483?accountid=10163, doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1056/NEJMra1602972.

Gauss, Robert W. "Regulation of Prescription Drugs from Producer to Consumer: The State's
Response." Journal of Drug Issues, vol. 8, no. 3, 1978, pp. 303-307. ProQuest,
https://login.proxy039.nclive.org/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/197947
2571?accountid=10163, doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/002204267800800307.

Schwarz, Stephen G. "Our Health: Prescription Drug Regulation." Rochester Democrat and
Chronicle, Feb 24, 2005. ProQuest,
https://login.proxy039.nclive.org/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/441731
270?accountid=10163.

Theriault, John. "Protecting the U.S Medicine Supply: Integrating Approaches to Promote
Safety: Research and Regulation." Journal of Commercial Biotechnology, vol. 19, no. 4,
2013. ProQuest,
https://login.proxy039.nclive.org/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/165496
3785?accountid=10163, doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.5912/jcb634.
Thompson, Dennis. “Are Some People Using Their Dogs to Get Opioids?” WebMD, WebMD,
15 Jan. 2019, https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/addiction/news/20190115/are-
some-people-using-their-dogs-to-get-opioids#3.