Overusing of Drugs - an Issue in Usa

                                The Context

The overusing of drugs is a very controversial issue in United States. The article “Medication Nation” show clearly how addicted Americans are to drugs. In recent years, many experts raised great varieties of arguments and suggestions about the use of drugs, especially, the number of experts who appeal to limit the use of drugs have increased over the past years. More news posts the bad effect of addiction to drugs. Many researches and articles raised arguments that are similar with Alcabes’.

Americans are in a society where everyone believes medicine can bring a better life. As Alcabes said, “Americans like drugs. We like a great many drugs” (2015). From people’s childhood, they see their parents use drugs, their friend use drugs, and when they grow up, they use drugs to cure themselves and their kids. The trust of drugs passes through generations. Like Alcabes argued, people see how drugs mitigate pain and cure diseases; pharma companies like people’s opinions toward medicines, and they are always advertising to deepen that thought that people lives better with drugs. Although they announce that their ads increase the general public’s knowledge of diseases and how to treat them, they overplay the benefits while minimizing the risks, and fewer than one-third provide alternative treatment options, even when there are more effective treatments available (Millar, 2010). This research is helpful to answer Alcabes’ concern about the over using of drugs in United States. The advertisement of drugs might be a driving force of people getting addicted of drugs. All above is consistent with an environment that everyone relies on drugs. As Alcabes notes, many people get addicted to drugs, and even when they realize the defects of over using drugs, they cannot get rid of them.  

Pharmaceutical companies are an important element not to be ignored in the American marketing. Alcabes argues that “more than 200 million prescriptions for opioid pain relievers are filled each year.” According to National Institute on Drug Abuse, “Between 1991 and 2011, painkiller prescriptions in the United States tripled from 76 million to 219 million per year. Their potency increased as well.” (1) This research helps to explain Alcabes’ idea of how popular drugs are in United States. The demand for medicine has gone up tremendously. As a result, companies make more drugs to satisfy the consumers and to make more profits, which causes a huge amount of prescriptions available on the market. Consequently, this can cause a vicious circle of drug uses.  

Alcabes points put an issue of the addiction to heroin. He said that “It’s easy to blame the availability and low cost of heroin, the prevalence of dependence on prescription opioids, or the doctors who write the prescriptions for pain relief.” According to the American Addiction Centers, the using of Heroin can take many physical dangers, like liver disease, HIV, and depression. It also shows that “In New York City between 2010 and 2012, heroin-involved deaths increased by 84 present.” Alcabes also mentions in his articles that “of the more than 16,000 Americans who die by overdosing on opioid painkillers, many are in unremitting physical pain.”Alcabes wants the reader to recognize the seriousness of the problem of drugs. According to The National Institute of Drug Abuse, “drug overdoses are the leading cause of death in America, killing roughly 22 presents over the 52404 drug deaths recorded in 2015.” (1) This articles was published in 2018. It further proof Alcabes’s argument that the drug using is harmful but the situation became worse than before.