Introduction
Every single day, over fifty Americans die from complications relating to the abuse of prescription drugs while thousands are taken to an ER for the same problem across the country. According to the Centers for disease control and Prevention (CDC), the prescription drug problem is gradually getting worse. Unfortunately, unlike narcotics, prescription drugs cannot be proscribed as they are essential for human well-being from a healthcare perspective. The government is thus stuck with a commodity that is saving millions of lives but also killing thousands. A critical question relating to prescription drugs, and one where the answer to the pandemic might lie is who benefits from the prescription drug abuse pandemic. If the beneficiaries are identified, and the benefit taken away, there is a chance that the pandemic will be quelled.
Background and Significance
Clinical and Pharmacological advancements are some of the hallmarks of the 20th century. Many ailments that would erstwhile have been fatal, including injuries and organ failure can now be treated with the patients living many years after. However, the new healthcare regimen has also come with an increased reliance on drugs, including pain control medication. Some of these drugs, including opioids, have a high propensity for addiction and also produce outcomes eerily similar to those of narcotics. Lifesaving drugs have now been transformed into recreational drugs leading to abuse, addictions, overdoses, and deaths. Currently, there is an urgent need to establish ways and means of reducing the abuse of prescription drugs to avoid rolling back the health gains that came with the development of these drugs. The subject is sensitive because the means to take away the drugs from the hands of the abusers should not also take the drugs away from those who desperately need them. It is on this basis that the proposed research is paramount.
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Literature Review
Research has shown that the narcotics vendor is as much a victim of the trade as the drug abuser. The only beneficiary of narcotics is the drug lord to whom the drug vendor answers. It is fundamental to ascertain who the drug lord in the prescription drug business is. The narcotics drug lord has connections in countries such as Colombia and Mexico. However, most of the abused prescription drugs are manufactured in the USA by prestigious pharmaceutical companies. The connection between the Fortune 500 drug makers and illegal street vendors needs to be established as within it lies the beneficiaries of the prescription drug menace. On the other hand, drug abusers and street vendors allow themselves to be victims of drug lords for certain reasons. Key among these reasons are peer pressure, desperation, and poverty. Understanding how to alleviate these reasons would create a second avenue for fighting against the abuse of prescription drugs.
Research Design and Methods
Abuse of prescription drugs has been a problem in the USA and across the world for a long time, and a lot of research studies have been undertaken regarding them. A comprehensive literature review can create a better understanding of the problem and reveal possible solutions. Over and above a literature review, an online ethnography on the drug abusers and vendors can answer the “why” aspect of their involvement in the issue thus enabling extenuation.
Conclusion
The duration taken to read this research proposal is long enough for another life to have been lost due to the problem canvassed herein. During the said duration, several lives may also have been saved by the same drugs causing the deaths. Prescription drugs are like a guerilla warfare enemy that cannot be exterminated because the collateral damage would be colossal. The thousands who are dying from abuse cannot be ignored just because millions are being saved. The millions cannot be denied drugs to save the thousands. It is necessary to find a middle ground where the thousands can be saved without jeopardizing the millions.
References
Eaton, Joe. "Selling prescription medications, opioids illegally." AARP . June 01, 2017. Accessed February 18, 2018. https://www.aarp.org/health/drugs-supplements/info-2017/selling-prescription-medications-opioids.html.
Islam, M. Mofizul, and Ian S. McRae. "An inevitable wave of prescription drug monitoring programs in the context of prescription opioids: pros, cons, and tensions." (2014)
SAMHSA. "Prescription drug misuse and abuse." Ann.lynsen. 2017. Accessed February 18, 2018. https://www.samhsa.gov/topics/prescription-drug-misuse-abuse.
Volkow, Nora D. "America’s addiction to opioids: heroin and prescription drug abuse." Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control 14 (2014)
