Gore’s world (and ours) is heating up
Unfortunately, Al Gore is dealing with something that goes beyond the challenging struggle for the environment—try one only a parent can appreciate. His son was recently arrested for possession of drugs after being pulled over for speeding.
Now, when I say drugs, you’re probably thinking your typical, run-of-the-mill marijuana and its ilk. Well, marijuana was only part of the contraband. Prescription drugs not prescribed to him made up the rest.
The Gore name obviously has public recognition, and if you like to look for the silver lining in a cloud, then maybe this public arrest can serve some good. What’s needed is for more folks to realize that prescription drugs are just that—drugs, and they carry as much danger, if not more, than illegal ones.
And it’s a growing trend among youngsters, with disturbing statistics to underscore it. From 2002 to 2005, prescription drug abuse rose 17 percent among 18- to 25-year-olds. Worse, prescription drugs claimed the highest number of new drug abusers—more so than any illicit drug! A survey from 2005 showed that the average number of new abusers of prescription pain pills was 2.4 million, while marijuana could claim only 2.1 million new users.
Some of the drugs that are more popular on college campuses are Adderall, Xanax, Valium and Vicodin. These college-aged students are raiding their parents’ medicine cabinets for leftover pills to be used for a quick high. They also take them from friends who have been personally prescribed these pills for medical reasons. Another source is the Internet, from which they can purchase prescription meds with relative ease.
Unfortunately, many of these younger folks are falling into the same mind-trap that older folks d They see prescription drugs as being “safer” than illicit drugs. But accidental drug deaths tell a different tale, and they’re on the increase thanks to this new recreational use.
Like I said, the younger crowd is not alone. A recent survey was released on drug use in this country with results from about 7,000 participants. Nearly 60 percent of them acknowledged abusing prescription drugs that they had gotten from either family or their friends.
Even the White House is concerned and now planning a national ad campaign to highlight this latest epidemic. The goal is to educate parents about the problem and get them to toss out old prescriptions and keep the current prescriptions they’re still using in a safely locked space. It’s the same thing you’d do with a loaded gun, which is what these drugs should be viewed as!
So what do you do with those old prescriptions still in your cabinets? Read on…
