A day probably doesn’t go by where I read a story about the horrific problem of prescription drug abuse among our nation’s youth. If you look at the past 30 blog entries I have written for onlinedrugclass.com, you will notice that prescription medications are taking up a lot of my material. There is a good reason for this.
There is no doubt that more young people are abusing prescription drugs than ever before. As reported in www.mintpress.net.
A recent study published in the Journal of Adolescent Health, indicates that young people are abusing prescription drugs at a rate 40 percent higher than their older generation.
It is no surprise that this increase rate of use directly correlates with overdose rates, creating a dangerous — and new — epidemic among adolescents. Between 2004 and 2007, emergency room visits related to prescription drug abuse increased by 129 percent. Death caused by prescription overdose tripled between the 1990s and 2007.
One of the primary reasons for the increase in use is the increase in availability of analgesics. Get this, the total number of hydrocodone and oxycodone products prescribed legally in the U.S. increased more than fourfold from about 40 million in 1991 to nearly 180 million in 2007.
I hope parents and kids will begin to take online drug classes together. Everyone should be aware of the potential loaded gun in the house.