Before a less-than-optimum situation can be improved or a problem solved, it must first be recognized and faced for what it is. Neither the head-in-the-sand approach nor the running away from the truth of it will end-up in a resolution of the problem or an improvement in a bad condition or situation. So it is with drug and drug use in America. It is past time for each one of us to take a long, hard look at where the use and abuse of drugs and alcohol is taking us, and where we will ultimately end-up if we don’t pull together and take some heroic measures to turn things around for the better.
Some Sobering Statistics
The number of Americans addicted to legal drugs happens to be far greater than the number of Americans who are addicted to illegal drugs.
- Today, nearly 70 percent of all Americans are using at least one prescription drug.
- 60 million Americans are abusing alcohol.
- 22 million Americans are using illegal drugs.(Department of Health and Human Services)
- 70 million American are currently taking “mind-altering drugs”.
- In 2010, physicians wrote more than 250 million prescriptions for anti-depressant drugs, (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
- 20 percent of all Americans are using a minimum of five prescription drugs. (Mayo Clinic)
- We, Americans, spent upwards of 280 billion dollars on prescription drugs in 2013.
- In America, there is an accidental drug overdose death every 19 minutes.(CDCP)
- Today in the U.S., more Americans are killed by prescription painkillers than cocaine and heroin combined.
- Nearly 750, 000 people in America end-up in emergency rooms every year due to harmful reactions to pharmaceutical drugs.(CDC)
- More American women are taking anti-depressants than in any country on earth.
- Many anti-depressants carry warnings of side-effects, one being “suicidal thoughts”, and the suicide rate of Americans between 35 and 64 years of age rose nearly 30% between 1999 and 2010.
- The suicide-caused death of Americans now exceeds the number of Americans who die every year as a result of car accidents.
Follow the Money
It seems that doctors in America today are trained in two potential solutions for addressing the problems of their patients, surgery and/or drugs. That coupled with the onslaught of media and commercials, droning constantly to take a pill to solve every problem whatever it may be. And drug dealing, whether illegal or legal, tends to be extremely profitable with the 11 largest pharmaceutical companies raking in nearly $85 Billion dollars in 2012. (Alternet)
Additionally, in 2012, the 11 out of 12 new-to-market drugs which were approved by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) were priced at more than a cost of $100,000 dollars per patient/ year.
It is a dangerous thing that most Americans believe prescription drugs are somehow safer than illegal drugs, easily falling into the trap of highly addictive prescription painkillers and anti-depressant dependency.
So what can we do? Let’s take a look at 5 ways we can end the drugging of America.
5 Ways to Stop Drug Addiction
1. Learn the truth about drugs.
It is vital to know and understand what drugs are, how they adversely affect the body and mind and the consequences of their use. To begin learning the truth about drugs, search online about drugs, their risks and their health effects or see our latest press release on the topic.
2. Learn to live life without drugs yourself.
If you are on prescription or illicit drugs and need help getting off them safely, there are a number of resources to get an individual of these substances.
3. Share the truth about drugs with others.
The majority of Americans do not really know what drugs are, nor are they aware of the dangers and consequences of their use. Please share your new understanding with others, especially your children and their parents and friends.
4. Help restore a common sense guide to better living.
With the advent of permissiveness and the push to take exception to our long-standing beliefs in right and wrong, good and bad, and all the decisions to be made stemming from that knowledge, it is vital to restore common sense.
5. Help restore educational basics.
The now-accepted drugging of our children with mind-bending psychoactive drugs as an unscientific and unworkable solution to a failure to educate must cease, and we must restore our time-honored and proven methods of successful education of our children and youth.
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