More should be done to stop prescription drug abuse

By Alex Hall

When Heath Ledger passed away a little over a month ago, many people attributed his death to him being a troubled young actor immersed in the lifestyle of excess that has been made so popular in Hollywood. While this may have very well been the case, it’s important to remember that there is much more to be taken from this tragic event than just the loss of one of Hollywood’s brightest young stars.

Ledger’s toxicology report came back two weeks after his death, and it contained a laundry list of prescription drugs that were found in his body and believed to have contributed to his death. Oxycodone. Hydrocodone. Diazepam. Temazepan. Alprazolam. Doxylamine. Not exactly the “glamorous” drugs we’ve come to expect our young actors, models and stars to abuse.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to start a “Save Young Hollywood” campaign. Lord knows they have the means to help themselves if they really wanted to. But as sad as it may be, the deaths of celebrities like Ledger, Houston rapper Pimp C (who died recently as a result of complications from sleep apnea and the abuse of prescription strength cough medicine), and Anna Nicole Smith help raise awareness of the prescription drug abuse problem plaguing millions of Americans. Events like this should be used as an opportunity for us as a culture to re-evaluate the impact of prescription drugs on our society, as well as our so-called “war on drugs.”

As a nation, we have spent nearly a century warning our children of the dangers of illicit drugs, and we have spent billions of dollars trying to eliminate them from our society. After all these years and virtually no progress in the “war”, we have learned that the demand for drugs cannot be eliminated, and no matter how much money we throw at the problem, we can’t even diminish the flow of drugs into this country.

Meanwhile, a generation of young adults has learned a “safe” and easily accessible way to get their high, without having to deal with all those “icky” illicit drugs and the stigma they bring. While illicit drug use by teens has actually been declining in recent years, the abuse of prescription and over-the-counter drugs by teens has seen a rapid increase. With the exception of marijuana, prescription drugs are the most widely abused by teens, more so than cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamines combined.

I have personally seen a great deal of my peers taking and even snorting Adderal, a drug used to treat those with ADHD, in order to stay alert and awake longer to study for tests and to party late into the night. I’ve tried to make them aware of the fact that the abuse of prescription drugs can lead to permanent damage of your brain and body, and that certain medications can even cause death. Unfortunately, I usually just get laughed at.

But for some reason, the societal outrage over the poisoning of our children by drug companies is strangely absent. Apparently the prevailing ideology is “Hey, if the FDA approved these drugs, how dangerous could they really be?”

But how could we expect there to be outrage? With the drug companies in the pocket of nearly every politician and drug commercials running every other minute on television, the American people have been led to believe that these “magical” drugs can offer us everlasting happiness, cleared nasal passages, and endless erections with little to no repercussions. Very rarely do we hear the negative effects of these drugs, and when we do, they’re spoken to us by a man speaking very, very fast. The fact is that prescription drugs just don’t carry the same stigma that the illicit ones do, and as a result, we have a society that is relatively accepting of, or at least willing to turn a blind eye to, prescription drug abuse.

So what do we do now? It’s evident that the youth of this nation are facing a great epidemic in regards to prescription drug abuse, but what can we do to fight it? The first step is raising awareness. Thankfully the government has realized this, and it has joined together with the

Partnership for a Drug-Free America to begin airing commercials alerting parents and teenagers of the dangers and easy accessibility of prescription drugs.

But as our government has learned the hard way in our “war on drugs”, commercials have a very limited effect in decreasing teen drug use. So even though raising awareness is an absolute necessity, we must do more to protect our children. We have proven that pouring our resources into the elimination of illicit drugs is a fruitless endeavor. What we need to do is focus our attention and resources more on the regulation of prescription drugs and less on illicit drugs. You would think that our country would have an easier time controlling and regulating drugs that we produce and sell ourselves.

I’m not saying that one type of drug is more or less damaging to society than the other, because both types destroy and take the lives of millions. I’m simply saying that if we are so intent on continuing this “war on drugs”, I would rather we be fighting a war that we can actually win.