The myth that many young adults understandably believe is
that abusing prescription drugs is safer than using illegal drugs, such as
heroin or cocaine. This is not the
case!
Let’s start with the basics.
Prescription drugs are prescribed by a physician or nurse practitioner
or someone of the like to a specific person for a specific cause. This means that the patient has something
wrong in their body that the medicine is trying to help. It also means that the medicine is prescribed
in a specific dose over a certain amount of time. That alone is complicated and should hint
that no one else should be taking these medications.
When a person other than the patient takes the medicine to
feel good, you are messing with your body.
The medicine is supposed to be taken when something is needing fixed; if
a healthy person takes the drugs, you are messing around with the healthy
pathways of your body. Also, a big
concern is having an bad reaction! If
you take too much or if you are unknowingly allergic to the medicine, very bad
things could happen. Allergic responses
involve swelling, which could potentially quickly shut your throat and kill
you. It happens quickly, and if people do
not know what you have taken, they have no way of helping.
There are three types of commonly abused prescription drugs:
- Opioids – these are pain relievers, such as oxycodone, fentanyl, hydrocodone, etc.
- Depressants – these are relaxers for people with high tension or anxiety. Examples are Xanax and Valium.
- Stimulants – these are medications for people who may have trouble concentrating, such as Adderall and Ritalin.
Let’s talk about the dangers.
With opioids, there is a risk of decreased ability to think,
which obviously results in a lot of secondary dangers because the person has
poor decision making ability. They may
choose to drive and crash, hurting themselves or others. They may choose to fool around and climb
something high, or try a skateboarding trick, or do something and fall, hurting
themselves badly. The list goes on and
on. The biggest danger with opioids though
is that they decrease a person’s breathing rate! When a person has taken opioids, they do not
recognize this is happening. They fall
asleep, their breathing slows down, not enough oxygen gets to their brain, and
brain tissue starts to die. This results
in a coma, and sometimes death.
Sometimes the person stops breathing all together. It only takes minutes of not breathing for a
person to be brain dead.
Depressants.
Sedatives. Tranquilizers. These are all the same drugs. The danger with these medications is that
taken unsafely, they can also slow breathing.
But they can also slow a person’s heart rate, meaning blood is not
getting to important organs, like the brain.
This can cause death. Also, if a
person stops taking the medication too suddenly, such as after a heavy partying
weekend, they can have seizures because the body gets too high strung after
being used to being relaxed. Seizures
can also lead to coma and death.
On to stimulants.
Stimulants are energizing the body, which is great for a person with a
medical condition who is prescribed them.
But for a healthy person, it is jump starting their nervous system. It causes dangerously high body
temperature. Basically a fever; high
body temperature can lead to seizures and brain damage. If stimulants are being abused, seizures can
occur without a fever – they happen because the body is just over
energized. Stimulants also affect the
heart, causing irregular heartbeats, which affect blood flow through the
body. Lastly, stimulants cause a person
to be aggressive and paranoid, which can lead to secondary dangers, such as
attacking another person.
ALL of these side effects can happen THE FIRST TIME A PERSON
TRIES A PRESCRIPTION DRUG. Do not think
it is safe to try it just once. It is
not.
ALL of these side effects have a higher chance of happening
IF ALCOHOL OR OTHER DRUGS ARE MIXED.
Mixing drugs with other drugs or drugs with alcohol is extremely
dangerous. The risk is not worth
it.
If these facts sound morbid, it is because they are. Taking medication that is not prescribed to
you is dangerous and deadly. Let’s talk
about how not to do it.
