It's Still Drug Abuse!

by Dennis Green

I take several handfuls of prescription drugs every day — from blood thinners and cholesterol lowering drugs to Vicodin for the pain from kidney stones and severe arthritis. And I’ve got it down to a fine science, how many Vicodin I can take in a 24-hour period without getting really “wiped out” and having very bad dreams. That’s three tablets, MAX.

So I wasn’t surprised when I read an article in the San Francisco Chronicle by Kevin Fagan called “Pill Parties,” about teenagers abusing prescription drugs. I sent Kevin an email praising his article, telling him a bit about my background promoting rehab programs, and invited him to examine another story that slides under the radar — prescription abuse by Senior citizens.

He shared with me a little information about how difficult his story had been, how nobody wanted to be quoted on the record about the subject. Big Pharma is in total denial about the abuse of prescription drugs, claiming that their products are “remarkably safe and rarely misused.”

So I decided to do a little research, going online, but also talking to some of my former contacts in the rehab field. I discovered that Senior prescription drug abuse is indeed a serious problem, affecting many geezers and old biddies, and has been recognized as a major public health problem since the early days of the Bush Administration in the year 2001.

In 2001, an article in USA Today reported that in a “silent epidemic,” 17% of elderly abuse or misuse prescription drugs. The category most often abused are the benzodiazepines — tranquilizers and sleeping pills — Valium, Librium, Xanax, Halcion and ProSom among the brand names. Next most commonly abused are Demerol, Vicodin, and other codeine and morphine derivatives, often prescribed after painful hip fractures.

Because most of the focus in the debate about drug abuse has been on teenagers smoking weed, or executives snorting the white stuff, or street crazies high on Ripple or meth, most Seniors addicted to alcohol or drugs are deeper in denial of their problems. Alcoholics who no longer metabolize those three cocktails as well as they used to claim they can’t be under the influence. Physicians fail to prescribe lower dosages, as they should, for elderly patients who metabolize sleeping pills more slowly too.

But as the experts have to remind them, “It’s still drug abuse!” Yes, you got that prescription for a legitimate ailment, but if you’ve been taking it for more than four months, chances are you’re now addicted. Prescription drug expenditures per senior have risen from $559 per year in 1992 to $2,810 today. The average number of prescriptions per Senior during that same time has risen from 19.6 to 38.5. Women of all ages are more likely (56%) than men (42%) to use prescription drugs.

The methamphetamine epidemic among rural residents of America is matched only by the epidemic of prescription drug abuse among Seniors. But as long as Smith-Kline Glaxo, Hoffmann-La Roche, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Novartis, Merck, Bristol-Meyers, Bayer, Eli Lilly and others claim that their products are “remarkably safe and rarely abused, because of physician safeguards and druggist controls,” the problem will go unrecognized and unresolved.

©2010 Dennis Green