In the United States prescription drugs bring in over $227 billion dollars a year. Several sources, including the Mayo Clinic, Science Daily and CBS, confirm that 70 percent of Americans are using at least one prescription drug and around 11 percent of those users are children. I think it’s safe to say that America is slightly over-drugged and let’s be honest, it’s too easy.

American’s are extremely aware of the medications that are available in today’s society. How can we not be? In an article on npr.org written by Alix Spiegel, he says, “Until the 1980s, the kind of people who sold stuff like packaged goods were completely different from the kind of people who sold stuff like prescription drugs. In those days, drugs ads were for doctors, not the public.” Today that is not the case. Advertising agencies are becoming more and more persuasive by telling consumers they could be saved from a sickness they may not even know they had. With the ads we are seeing and access to resources like WebMD, who needs to go to the doctor anymore?

Now let’s throw children into the mix. We can’t expect them to know the effects Adderall and Ritalin will have on their lives and they barely even have a say in the matter. A recent study showed that in the last decade the number of children with ADHD climbed 24 percent. So let’s get this straight, since the rise of smart phones, social media and extremely realistic video games, kids have become more distracted? Weird. Today’s youth are surrounded by new stimuli and entertainment. Instead of throwing “focus pills” at them, maybe we should go back to the basics and get a little more creative before we assume they have a disorder.

I understand that there are legitimate needs for prescription drugs and modern medicine has done some incredible things for humanity. However, I believe that there are other solutions. There was a day when eating healthy, exercising and “no play time until your homework is done,” seemed to work pretty well. Before we jump to conclusions and take short cuts that will surely stock up our medicine cabinets, it couldn’t hurt to research other options.

People love drugs and we have this enormous industry that will continue to make more and more money with the rise of disorders, but not every pill has a happy ending. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 100 people die every single day from drug overdose in the U.S. and almost all drugs involved in overdoses originally came from a prescription. Not only does our country consume 80 percent of the world’s painkillers, but these drugs are the second largest medical expense that Americans face. While medicine may provide a temporary sense of happiness or relief, this problem reflects a greater malfunction within our society that needs to be addressed.

cheykoop@mavs.coloradomesa.edu