Federal Support for Prescription Drugs Abuse

Prescription drug abuse is a major concern these days in our society, with many thousands of kids and adults now abusing prescription drugs. This only recently became a social problem that began back in 1995 when Oxycondone became available on the pharmaceutical market accounting for 90% of the US prescription sales. Within the first decade, sales of Oxycodone increased by 850%. The prescription drug mainly used to manage chronic pain was now being adopted for every pain possible under the sun and moon.

This prescription drug under the name of OxyContin or “Oxy” or “OC” on the street is highly addictive. It is an opioid, like morphine, codeine, heroin, and methadone. It was not long before the drug went to the black market and sold on the street, cheaper than heroin but just as effective it was soon referred to as the poor man’s heroin. But it didn’t stop there soon there were reports on various substance abuse chatter lines of “pharm parties” this is when teenagers take some pills of all types from the home medicine cabinet and then each dumps their pills in a large bowl mixed with all sort of pills and these are taken at random. Some pills can be for high blood pressure, some for arthritis, and some for allergies or depression others for who knows what. This fad did not last long as the reports of overdose caused concerns and awareness campaigns brought it under control pretty quick.

Yet in 2014 there are still hundreds of thousands of people addicted to prescription drugs all across the US and Canada. A report launched in March of 2013 by the CCSA (Canadian Center on Substance Abuse) that shows a response from a coalition with over 30 other organization proposing a strategy to deal with the misuse of opiate, stimulant, and sedative. The recognition is that prescription abuse is too complex for only one organization to address and requires the help of many groups with the same interest.

As a matter of fact, on Feb. 12, 2014, the chief executive officer of CCSA, Michel Perron, stated being very pleased to hear the federal government deciding to increase funding to the Anti Drug Strategy by helping with an increase of funds to address the problem. Then again $44.9 million over 5 years is a lot of money to combat a prescription drug abuse issue in Canada. Granted there are cases that are severe and need medical attention to help them but if we are only talking of the abuse cases, it makes one wonder, what exactly is this money being spent on.

No matter the prescription drug abuse, any good reputable medical detox can help this person withdraw from using the prescription drug and then follow up with an affordable drug rehab treatment. There are thousands of family members out there that want to help their son, daughter, wife or husband get off the prescription drug but lacking the funds to send them to a good private drug rehab causes serious problems for them, why not set up a drug rehab funding support agency to help these families out.