Menstuff® has compiled the following information on
prescription drugs.
SAMHSA Survey Shows Prescription Drug Abuse Up
Among Young Adults
Prescription Drug Costs
SAMHSA Survey Shows Prescription Drug Abuse
Up Among Young Adults
The rate of adolescents ages 12 to 17 acknowledging drug use in the past month dropped from 11.6 percent in 2002 to 9.8 percent in 2006. This level is similar to the level in 2005 (9.9 percent). Among the most notable findings was that the level of current marijuana use among youth ages 12 to 17, particularly males, declined significantly from 8.2 percent in 2002 to 6.7 percent in 2006.
Among the 18-25-year-old set, however, the picture was not so rosy, with prescription drug misuse jumping 19 percent between 2002 and 2006, due largely to an increase in the nonmedical use of pain relievers.
“The abuse of prescription drugs for nonmedical reasons is of increasing concern,” said SAMHSA Administrator Terry Cline, Ph.D. “These are potent drugs that can have serious and life-threatening consequences if misused. Parents in particular need to be aware of this problem and take steps to prevent these medications from falling into the wrong hands.”
Officials said the solution to prescription drug abuse needs to begin in the home. “Most people [who abuse prescription drugs] say that they are not getting them from criminal organizations; they’re getting them from family and friends; they’re getting them out of your medicine cabinet,” noted John Walters, Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy. “We have the power to stop this and it begins in our homes.”
In light of the findings, SAMHSA officials announced a new effort with pharmacies that will educate the public about how to protect and properly dispose of their prescription medications.
Another area of concern highlighted in the survey was underage drinking among ages 12 to 20, which remained unchanged since 2002 at 28.3 percent.
In general, the 2006 survey revealed that an estimated 22.6 million persons (9.2 percent of the population ages 12 and older) may have had either substance abuse or dependency problems in the past year. Of these, 3.2 million were dependent on or abused both alcohol and illicit drugs; 3.8 million were dependent on or abused illicit drugs but not alcohol; and 15.6 million were dependent on or abused alcohol but not illicit drugs.
Officials at today’s press conference and luncheon stressed that while drug abuse remains a problem among youth, there is a solution and people can recover, provided they have the necessary treatment and support. Nikki Sixx, bassist of the rock band Motley Crue, served as a real-life example of recovery from addiction.
“I’ve been very successful in business, I toured the world and sold 355 million records, but I woke up one morning and I was an addict,” he told the audience.
Now clean and sober, Sixx is a father of four, a musician in two bands and business owner, and he attributes his success to treatment and therapy. “If being sober means you can’t rock, then I think I’m proving that wrong,” he said.
Gwendolyn Brown, Chairman and CEO of Genesis Prevention Coalition, Inc. in Atlanta and longtime CADCA member, also spoke at today’s event. Ms. Brown was invited by SAMHSA to share her successes in Atlanta as a leading Drug-Free Communities program grantee. Mentioning her coalition’s 42 collaborative partners, Brown noted, “we are not in the trenches alone, but we are the ground soldiers.”
For more information about Recovery Month, a month-long observance
aimed at promoting the message that recovery from alcohol and drug
use disorders is possible, visit www.recoverymonth.gov. To learn more
about SAMHSA’s National Survey on Drug Use and Health visit
www.samhsa.gov
Source: www.notmykid.org/Lists/Items/DispForm.aspx?ID=3032
In our independent investigation of how much profit drug companies really make, we obtained the actual price of active ingredients used in some of the most popular drugs sold in America. The chart below speaks for itself.
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Celebrex 100 mg |
$130.27 |
$0.60 |
21,712% |
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Claritin 10 mg |
$215.17 |
$0.71 |
30,306% |
|
Keflex 250 mg |
$157.39 |
$1.88 |
8,372% |
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Lipitor 20 mg |
$272.37 |
$5.80 |
4,696% |
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Norvasc 10 mg |
$188.29 |
$0.14 |
134,493% |
|
Paxil 20 mg |
$220.27 |
$7.60 |
2,898% |
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Prevacid 30 mg |
$44.77 |
$1.01 |
34,136% |
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Prilosec 20 mg |
$360.97 |
$0.52 |
69,417% |
|
Prozac 20 mg |
$247.47 |
$0.11 |
224,973% |
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Tenormin 50 mg |
$104.47 |
$0.13 |
80,362% |
|
Vasotec 10 mg |
$102.37 |
$0.20 |
51,185% |
|
Xanax 1mg |
$136.79 |
$0.024 |
569,958% |
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Zestril 20 mg |
$89.89 |
$3.20 |
2,809% |
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Zithromax 600mg |
$1,482.19 |
$18.78 |
7,892% |
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Zocor 40mg |
$350.27 |
$8.63 |
4,059% |
|
Zoloft 50mg |
$206.87 |
$1.75 |
11,821% |
Since the cost of prescription drugs is so outrageous, I thought everyone I knew should know about this. Please read the following and pass it on.
It pays to shop around. This helps to solve the mystery as to why they can afford to put a Walgreen's on every corner..................
On Monday night, Steve Wilson, an investigative reporter for channel 7 News in Detroit, did a story on generic drug price gouging by pharmacies. He found in his investigation, that some of these generic drugs were marked up as much as 3,000% or more. Yes, that's not a typo..... three thousand percent!
So often, we blame the drug companies for the high cost of drugs, and usually rightfully so. But in this case, the fault clearly lies with the pharmacies themselves. For example, if you had to buy a prescription drug, and bought the name brand, you might pay $100 for100 pills. The pharmacist might tell you that if you get the generic equivalent, they would only cost $80, making you think you are "saving" $20. What the pharmacist is not telling you is that those 100 generic pills may have only cost him $10!
At the end of the report, one of the anchors asked Mr. Wilson whether or not there were any pharmacies that did not adhere to this practice, and he said that Costco consistently charged little over their cost for the generic drugs.
I went to the Costco site, where you can look up any drug, and get its online price. It says that the in-store prices are consistent with the online prices. I was amazed.
Just to give you one example from my own experience, I had to use the drug, Compazine, which helps prevent nausea in chemo patients. I used the generic equivalent, which cost $54.99 for 60 pills at CVS.
I checked the price at Costco, and I! could have bought 100 pills for $19.89. For 145 of my pain pills, I paid $72.57. I could have got 150 at Costco for $28.08.
I would like to mention, that although Costco is a "membership" type store, you do NOT have to be a member to buy prescriptions there, as it is a federally regulated substance. You just tell them at the door that you wish to use the pharmacy, and they will let you in.
I am asking each of you to please help me by copying this letter, and pasting it into your own email, and send it to everyone you know with an email address.
BTW - there's no identifying info as to who started this - it's a great ad for Costco to be sure, but if the info is correct and you can check for yourself by doing comparisons the gobernment needs to be held accountable for their complicity in this highway robbery.
And, yes, the comparison prices for "active ingredients" don't include packaging and the ingredients that hold the tablet together - but, come on .......does their advertising cost THAT MUCH???? (Editor's Note: Developmental costs aren't included, either.)
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