Everyday, two thousand five hundred youth abuse a prescription drug for the first time. This is most common in the United States. Prescription drugs are responsible for more overdose deaths than any other drug. I know personally I have seen a lot of people get caught up in these soul taking drugs.

I interviewed a friend of mine John Mcparland, who has unfortunately been around prescription abuse his whole life. John thinks that this epidemic of prescription abuse is more severe than many people think, especially among the youth of today.

I asked John about why he thought this problem was growing; he told me “One common reason is people are prescribed drugs for injuries, illness, and basically most health problems and when these pills become euphoric people can easily get hooked and it usually lead to other drug abuse.” My next question was what do you think is the most common drug abused; he responded “Opiates and amphetamines, but a huge problem among kids these days is Xanax it seems that people are doing them younger and younger, and the worst part is that these young kids are snorting them also.”

Everything that the user used to love changes and eventually it becomes a dependency, an escape, a need which leads to many negative effects. My next question for John was what could help fix this plague or at least begin to take a step in a better direction. John told me, “He truly believes that legalizing marijuana would help take a step because people need an alternative.”

The next person I interviewed is Wade Cedar who owns a skate shop in Amesbury and has had a lot of friends who get caught up in pills. I asked Wade basically the same questions as I asked John and the answers were slightly different, most likely because of the age difference. Wade thinks that, “There is an epidemic especially among kids and the problem is only growing.” Wade thinks the root of the problem is, “That they are over prescribed and easily accessible and he thinks this generation has created a pill culture.”

Similarly to John, he thinks the most abused prescriptions are amphetamines like Adderall. Wade told me “Addictions affect you in every single part of your life in the worst consuming manor.” When asked the question what do you think could happen to take a step in the right direction, he told me,”MA took one positive step; there is now a prescriptions database and anyone who buys drugs is listed in it with how much and how often.”  He also thinks “People need alternatives, education, and pills need to be less accessible in general. Pills should be a last resort.”  

I asked Wade how easy is it for someone to get addicted. He responded, “there are a lot of factors that contribute like, influences, community, accessibility, family life, etc. But in general they are very addictive.”

After I conducted these Interviews I figured I needed to make my own conclusions to the questions I asked them. Personally I believe that the vast majority of prescription abuse stems from depression; there has even been studies to prove that most addictions stem from another mental disorder or illness but we should think of that as set in stone as the only way addiction is possible.  It is just the majority of cases. I think that prescription drugs are a plague the youth of Today.