Do you take any prescription medications that were not prescribed for you? If not, you soon will be in the minority. That’s how rampant prescription medication abuse is in this country right now!

According to a recent US Government study, more than 70 percent of people who abuse prescription pain relievers obtain the drugs from friends or relatives, usually with permission and for free.

The study, reported in Reuters, based on an ongoing national survey of nearly 70,000 Americans aged 12 and over, offers a snapshot of a growing health and safety problem that is already responsible for more fatal overdoses than cocaine and heroin, combined, and has begun to spawn other crimes including gang violence.

It estimated that more than 7 million Americans abuse pharmaceutical drugs. Prescription drugs account for about 75 percent of all drug-related U.S. overdose deaths. Pain killers like oxycodone are responsible for ¾ of all pill overdoses in the US.

With data showing the home medicine cabinet to be a prime source, law authorities around the country face a daunting public education challenge to persuade legal drug users to dispose of medication properly before it can fall into the wrong hands.

A program devoted to media outreach, which originated under President Bill Clinton, is no longer being funded by Congress.

The president has requested $20 million for a media campaign that had been run successfully from this office. Unfortunately, last year, Congress did not fund it.

In the meantime, the criminal threat posed by illicit pill mills and dealers - who can include doctors and pharmacists - has begun to spread across the United States. We need more drug classes and education to keep kids and adults off of drugs.

Let’s face it – drugs and alcohol are more pervasive in society today than ever. The number of designer drugs and ways people are finding to get high have never been greater.

How many people do you know who drink alcohol? How many of your acquaintances use marijuana or stronger drugs? Do you know anyone abusing prescription pain medication? I bet you do.

Life is a numbers game. The number of people abusing chemical substances is in an inflationary period that shows no signs of stagnation.

The Numbers

According to CBS News, between 149 million and 271 million people worldwide used an illicit drug at least once in 2009, according to a new review of studies attempting to estimate the extent of the problem. That translates to 1 in 20 people aged 15 to 64 taking an illegal drug.

There is no way this number can be accurate. It has to be deflated because there is a huge segment of users that will never admit to doing so on any survey, anonymous or not.

Even so, two Australian researchers reviewed studies from around the globe to determine the scope of illegal drug use in people aged 15 to 64 and understand its health effects on problem-users in these countries.

Marijuana and hashish (cannabis) use topped the list with between 125 million and 203 million users worldwide in 2009. The highest levels of use were seen in North America, Western Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.

In North America, nearly 11% of the population aged 15 to 64 used cannabis that year. Between 14 million and 56 million people aged 15 to 64 worldwide used amphetamine-type stimulants, such as speed and crystal meth.

Cocaine use was highest in North America, and it had 14 million to 21 million users worldwide.

Opioid use, including heroin, had an estimated 12 million to 21 million users globally. The highest rates of use were in the Near and Middle East, where up to 1.4% of the population aged 15 to 64 had tried the drug at least once that year.

Drug abuse is a global epidemic. More drug and alcohol classes are needed. Stricter punishments need to be put in place. Drug addiction must be slowed if we are to save our planet.

Let’s face it, we all want to keep our children safe and addiction free. But with the prevalence of drugs in society and peer pressure just how do we do that? I might like to recommend taking an alcohol drug class with your teen.

Forming a close relationship with your teenager might have its ups and downs, but research suggests open communication promotes individual decision-making, even if the talk is not all that agreeable.

Available through the journal Child Development, a new study states that teens who express their viewpoints with their mothers tend to resist the peer pressure to drink, smoke, and participate in drugs.

“The healthy autonomy [teens] established at home seemed to carry over into their relationships with peers,” explains Joseph Allen, lead author of the study and professor at the University of Virginia. Allen’s study also showed that teens with a good relationship with their parents typically avoided substance abuse as well.

Researchers talked with the parents and friends of over one-hundred-and-fifty teens ages 13, 15, and 16 as well as the adolescents individually in order to understand their interactions with substances, parents, friends, and peers. The study additionally analyzed their observed social etiquette while interacting.

Many who chose to abstain most from alcohol, tobacco, and other substances learned to “argue” with their mothers about everyday life topics like money, grades, house rules, and friends. In this case, arguing is defined as an educated debate hoping to persuade with reason and not whining, crying, or using explicit language.

Overall, the study found teens that held a voice in family discussions felt more confident to make their own decision and reject peer influences towards alcohol and drugs.

A recent study by the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) illustrated that although adolescent drinking and smoking have gone down in the past few years, sixty-five percent of high school seniors admit to consuming alcohol while nineteen percent of seniors smoke cigarettes. Moreover, marijuana and prescription drug use remain prevalent and steady.

Work to maintain an open relationship with children in order to facilitate freedom of speech. By helping teens understand a different reality than what fellow teenagers present, they’ll be more capable of saying “no” to peer-pressure and making independent decisions.

A good relationship with open lines of communications certainly cannot hurt.

When you think of a drug addict does the image of an octogenarian come to mind? Probably not. But this is becoming more common all of the time.

For older adults, drinking too much and misusing medications are the major substance use problems, affecting as many as 20 percent of them. They are particularly vulnerable to the mental and physical effects of alcohol and drugs because of physiological and cognitive changes that take place with age. And, even if they are not addicted to alcohol or illegal substances, they are at risk for serious problems including:

• Adverse drug reactions, including fatal overdoses,
• Accidents -- including falls and traffic accidents,
• Exacerbation of health problems,
• Social isolation,
• Sleep disturbances,
• Inactivity,
• Loss of cognitive capacity and
• Suicide -- which is more likely among older adults than any other age group.

In general, substance abuse and misuse vastly limit the potential to live well in old age.

During the elder boom there will be tremendous growth of the number of older adults with substance use problems, in part because of the growth of the population of older adults, but also because baby boomers use substances -- including illegal substances -- much more commonly than their parents' generation.

For example, a study done by the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) projects the growth of people 60 or over who need substance abuse treatment from about 700,000 in 2000 to about 2,300,000 in 2020 (2). Recent surveys (3) confirm that this is already happening, with marked growth of the use of marijuana.

In addition, the CDC recently released a report projecting a vast increase in addiction to prescription painkillers and in deaths due to overdoses, which already kill more Americans than heroin and cocaine combined (4).

Will you, a member of your family, or a close friend be among the older adults with serious substance use problems? Here are a few signs that should cause concern (5).

• Getting unusually high without an increase in use
• Use of alcohol or drugs to sleep and then finding it difficult to get going in the morning
• Reliance on opiates to manage pain in doses that exceed a doctor's prescription
• Going from doctor to doctor to get additional prescriptions
• Using over-the-counter drugs in amounts or in combinations of medicines that are not recommended
• Cognitive or memory impairments, difficulty concentrating, or confusion
• Slurred speech
• Increased isolation
• Difficulty participating in ordinary activities
• Weight loss and/or poor nutrition
• Increased fatigue and/or weakness
• Poor personal hygiene
• Unusual restlessness or agitation
• Persistent irritability or altered mood
• Balance problems and/or frequent falls

These symptoms can, of course, have causes other than substance abuse or misuse, but if a person is using alcohol or other drugs and has these symptoms, substance use may be a major cause. I would recommend a good online drug class. 

What role does race play with respect to substance abuse?  It may play a larger role than you think.

White children between the ages of 12 and 17 are nearly twice as likely to have a drug problem than African-Americans, despite African-American children being nearly twice as likely to be arrested for a drug charge, separate studies have revealed.

The study on drug abuse, published Monday by the Archives of General Psychiatry, used data from 72,561 youth interviewed by the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. From this data, researchers found that 37 percent of children between the ages of 12 and 17 have used alcohol or drugs in the past year, with nearly 8 percent using drugs or alcohol often enough to have a substance-abuse disorder.

Out of the 8 percent who had a drug problem, the racial breakdown was: 15 percent Native American; 9.2 percent mixed racial heritage; 9.0 percent white; 7.7 percent Hispanic; 5 percent African-American, and 3.5 percent Asian/Pacific Islander.

Nevertheless, arrest rates show a much stronger focus on blacks than whites. In a 2008 study of juvenile arrest trends by the United States Department of Justice data showed that for every 1,000 African-American between the ages of 10 and 17 arrested for a drug abuse violation, less than 600 white children were arrested between 2004 and 2008.

The high rates of drug use among young people also reveals that marijuana and analgesic opioids, or painkillers, were used more often than alcohol, according to the study.

In 2009, the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) released a study that found children between the ages of 12 and 17 were increasingly able to get marijuana and prescription drugs than alcohol. Although the study did not reveal why access to marijuana had increased, parents could be partially blamed for the increased access to prescription drugs could be partially due to parents.

A substantial number of American parents have become passive pushers. A few decades ago, parents used to have a lock on the liquor cabinet. Maybe there should be a lock on the medicine cabinet.

It seems like there is not one facet of society not feeling the effects of the devastating economic situation here in the United States. Could the economy help curb our nation’s epidemic use of recreational drugs?

Is the recession changing the way we get high? All sorts of quirky trends have been attributed as fallout from the global economic crisis—including, most recently, a decrease in the frequency with which parents change their kids’ diapers, and a rise in odds and ends like lottery ticket sales and dog kidnappings. Now, experts are saying that people are turning away from pricey cocaine during these tough times, and are instead choosing cheaper narcotics to get their fix.

Citing a report from the Center for the Study and Prevention of Substance Abuse at Nova Southeastern University in South Florida, the Miami Herald reports that there are several indications cocaine usage is down in the area once known for “Miami Vice” and a teeming cocaine culture. The number of cocaine overdoses treated in ERs, cocaine-related deaths, and people seeking treatment for crack and cocaine addictions have all dropped sharply in recent years.

In 2007, for example, there were 281 cocaine-related deaths in Miami. At the time, the figure was fairly typical. In both 2009 and 2010, however, there under 200 cocaine-related deaths (155 and 198, respectively).

Floridians haven’t simply become more inclined to go cold turkey and just say no, however. Experts say a prime reason that cocaine usage is down is because consumers (i.e., illicit drug users) have been seeking more bang (i.e., buzz) for the buck in recent years.

The war on drugs may not have made cocaine disappear, but it did make it more difficult, and more expensive for abusers to get their hands on coke—which has also increasingly been less likely to be a pure, uncut product. As the Herald story notes, “drug users paid more and got less” when purchasing cocaine.

As the recession took hold and Florida’s unemployment rate shot to upwards of 12%, fewer people had the disposable income to afford “Scarface” type piles of cocaine. And, like the tippler who, when money is tight, chooses cheap beer rather than top-shelf liquor, many former cocaine users stopped snorting and subbed cheap prescription narcotics instead. Per the Herald:

While cocaine may have fallen from fashion and favor, more Floridians turned to prescription drugs. Of the 9,000 drug-related deaths statewide last year, 6,090 showed the person used benzodiazepines and Oxycodone. Prescription drug deaths increased 50 percent in Miami-Dade last year.

A report showed that the number of prescription drug-related deaths also rose 9% throughout all of Florida from 2009 to 2010. One reason for the shift from cocaine to prescription drugs is that the latter are cheaper. Relatively speaking, they’re also much easier and safer to get one’s hands on.

The economy is in a shambles and drug abuse is still on the rise. What is needed is more drug education at an earlier age.

Add fetuses to the growing list of those addicted to prescription medication. No, that is not a typo, and really the only surprise is that obviously fetuses cannot access the Internet – yet!

Medical authorities are witnessing explosive growth in the number of newborn babies hooked on prescription painkillers, innocent victims of their mothers' addictions.

Examples:

• Maine Medical Center in Portland treated 121 babies dependent on prescription painkillers in 2010, up from 18 in 2001.
• East Tennessee Children's Hospital in Knoxville adopted a program to treat drug-exposed babies a year ago. Of the 579 babies admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit since then, 106 needed treatment for withdrawal from oxycodone and other painkillers — up from fewer than 40 in 2008. In September, painkiller-addicted babies filled nearly half the neonatal intensive care unit's 60 beds, the highest number ever. "It has just exploded," says John Buchheit, director of neonatology at East Tennessee Children's Hospital. "Narcotic use is just rampant in our society, and our area is particularly bad. The babies are caught in the middle."
• At St. Joseph's Hospital in Tampa, 40 babies born in the first nine months of this year needed special care because of painkiller exposure — a 33% increase over all of 2010, says Ken Solomon, director of neonatology at three hospitals in the Tampa-St. Petersburg area.

It has to be absolutely heartbreaking for anyone witnessing the birth of a child addicted to these drugs. The infants writhe in pain as they withdraw from the drugs. Unfortunately the problem is getting worse by the day. Mothers have to be unselfish with a child in the womb and must stop taking these medications while they are pregnant and breast feeding. 

The valedictorian of our high school class was a total stoner! Do you know people who seem to be very intelligent, often having very high IQs, who are prone to addiction? Looking back now, myself not being a textbook example, there were a number of very intelligent, high IQ comrades in high school and college who abused alcohol and drugs.

Logically, let me begin by saying smart people know that using and abusing drugs and alcohol is a bad thing to do. They are smart enough to know better. But are they more prone to addiction? A recent British survey thinks so.

Higher IQ – Higher Chance of Addiction?

A new British study finds children with high IQs are more likely to use drugs as adults than people who score low on IQ tests as children. The data come from the 1970 British Cohort Study, which has been following thousands of people over decades. The kids' IQs were tested at the ages of 5, 10 and 16.

The study also asked about drug use and looked at education and other socioeconomic factors. Then when participants turned 30, they were asked whether they had used drugs such as marijuana, cocaine and heroin in the past year.

Researchers discovered men with high childhood IQs were up to two times more likely to use illegal drugs than their lower-scoring counterparts. Girls with high IQs were up to three times more likely to use drugs as adults. A high IQ is defined as a score between 107 and 158. An average IQ is 100. The study appears in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

The lead researcher says he isn't surprised by the findings. "Previous research found for the most part people with high IQs lead a healthy life, but that they are more likely to drink to excess as adults," says James White a psychologist at Cardiff University in the United Kingdom.

It's not clear why people with high childhood IQs are more likely to use illegal drugs.

"We suspect they may be more open to new experiences and are more sensation seeking," says White. In the paper, White and his co-author also mention other studies that find high IQ kids may use drugs because they are bored or to cope with being different.

That seems to ring true for one of my childhood classmates.

One of the smartest kids in my middle school. But, by the time she was in her early 20's, she was a heroin addict. I found out while flipping channels one sleepless night and stumbled upon the documentary "Black Tar Heroin."

Just one more thing to think about. You have smart kids – watch them like a hawk.