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Prescription Pills: The Double-Edged Sword

By:
Nicholas Lee

Rhetoric and Writing Skills 200 (10 AM)


Professor Cathy Hoffman
Policy Paper
6 May 2015
Word Count: 2,927

Lee ii
Outline
Thesis: Our nation should find safer ways to dispose of medication, continue the search
for non-addictive prescription painkillers, and ultimately, use less drugs.
I.

Needs
A. The number of overdoses in the United States is growing larger each and every year.
1.

It is the second most popular form of suicide, with Gun Shot wounds accounting
for 53.7% of all suicides (Suicide Methods).

2.

Overdoses include suicide, addiction, and lethal combinations of other drugs or


controlled substances.

B. A lot of people that take prescription pills, do not have prescriptions for the pills that they
are taking.
1.

There is a huge black market for amphetamines in college campuses.

2.

It has sort of become a norm for non-prescribed students to pop Adderall around
big tests (Crump).

C. Our ecosystems water streams are flooded with expired drugs.


1.

40% of our nations water supply has minuscule levels of hormones, antibiotics,
and other drugs (Dispose My Meds).

2.

Most people are flushing expired prescription pills down the toilet, which leaks
into our environment.

D. The United States is a nation that over-prescribes.


1.

At a time when chronic illnesses have reached peak levels, pill taking has
become a norm (Boggs).

2.

Many people have more pills than they need to treat their illness.

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E. Painkillers, Benzodiazepines, and Amphetamines are turning patients into legal drug
addicts.
1.

13 percent of all opioid patients are doctor shoppers (Nation Institute on Drug
Abuse).

2.

The human body becomes physically dependent on painkillers, benzodiazepines,


and Amphetamines after an extended period of usage, due to their short half-lifes.

F. Pills are being used as a short term solution to a long term problem.
1.

Instead of going to talk therapy, people are taking Xanax to get rid of their
anxiety.

2.

Instead of eating healthy and exercising, people are taking diet pills to lose
weight.

II.

Policy
A. The United States should continue our research for safer, less addicting drugs.
1.

People should not have to risk opioid addiction for treating pain.

2.

Not everyone follows the instructions on the pill bottle when consuming the drug.

B. There needs to be some sort of incentive for people to return their expired prescription
pills back to a pharmacy.
1.

Most people are not going to go out of their way to get rid of their old drugs.

2.

If theres a reward for people if they return their expired pills in, more people will
want to return their old drugs, rather than discarding them into the environment.

C. We need to find long term solutions to illnesses, rather than just prescribing
pharmaceuticals.

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1.

The Institute of Medicine estimates that 100 million Americans have chronic
pain (Meisel).

2.

Doctors should be able to identify and treat the cause of the pain, rather than
simply supplying the patient with opioids.

D. Our nation should create more data bases for pills, so one person does not receive ten
different prescriptions for one drug.
1.

There are an estimated 146.1 million records of opioid prescriptions (National


Institute of Drug Abuse).

2.

With all these opioid prescriptions, there has to be some sort of way to control the
amount of opioids dispensed.

E. People need to know the dangers of prescription pills.


1.

Most people tend to underestimate the potency of pharmaceutical drugs.

2.

Since 1990, deaths in the U.S. from unintentional drug overdoses have increased
by over 500% (Meisel).

F. Our nation needs to prescribe less pills.


1.

Statins such as Crestor, Lipitor, and Zocor reached approximated sales of $21.3
billion in 2011 (Boggs).

2.

The less pills our nation has floating around, the easier it will be to keep track of
these pills.

III.

Benefits
A. There would be less deaths.
1.

Prescription pills would no longer be used as a tactic for suicide if there were
safer alternatives.

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2.

Less people would die from lethal combinations if they understood the true
importance of following the instructions on the label.

B. Our nation would save money.


1.

All these overdoses and deaths are costing our nation a lot of money.

2.

If prescription drugs were not so excessive in this country, there would be less ER
visits.

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