"The Drug Epidemic- How Easy Are they to Get a Hold of?"

Xanax, Oxycodone, Adderall, Percocets, etc. How easy is it for American youth to get a hold of these drugs? As a matter of fact, it's one of the easiest things to get a hold of as long as their is a "physical ailment." All doctors want to do is prescribe something for the pain to make it disappear. It wasn't long ago that my sister was a high school student. One day, she had a sore throat and my mother decided to bring her to a local pediatrician. At the time, she was sixteen years old. The doctor concluded that she had swollen glands and gave her a prescription for Percocets. Are you shocked? Yes, I wrote Percocets. Percocets for a sore throat. I'm sure many of you are thinking it is insane. Well, my sister did not fill the prescription. Instead, she immediately phoned my mother, who called the doctor and gave him a few choice words of her own. For those of you who don't know, Percocets are pain killers, which are highly addicting. Most pain killers only limit the soreness for a short period of time. If a person begins taking pain killers every day, eventually, their dosage will need an increase because they will no longer work for the person. Most of the time, it is all in the patients mind. Doctors prescribe many prescription drugs to make money off of patients and because it's the easy way out. It's extremely frightening to think that some doctors believe that the answers to cure an ailment lye in a little pill. If younger patients are prescribed these drugs every day, the addiction age will spiral to an all time record. How could anyone prescribe these "heavy duty" drugs to teenagers when they know that they commonly destroy lives? In my opinion, it's pure laziness. It saves the doctor a trip from discovering the real troubles. How is it that only in America this is common to occur? We live in country that revolves around drugs and prescriptions. Unfortunately, Tylenol no longer does the trick. Another drug that is easy for children to get prescribed is speed. Parents who think their child is hyperactive brings them to a psychiatrist, who in turn decides the parent is right and gives them medication. Anyone can go to a psychiatrist and tell them that they have problems focusing and as long as they're convincing, they can get Adderall or Ritalin. What people don't know is that these drugs are an epidemic in America. Once a child is given a prescription, the dosages are tripled once a year because they no longer "work." What parents don't know is that most addicts were diagnosed with ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) or ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder) as children. So before you contemplate on medications to control your child's behavior, make sure you know the risks. Unfortunately, they could be next.