Off The Cuff

Are We Overmedicating Ourselves? Internet Part Of The Problem?

Posted by: From Arkansas in Are You Kidding Me?, Health Topics, News And More Stuff on Aug 23 2007

Welcome back!

The question of are we overmedicating ourselves can be answered in only one way..YES! Is the internet part of the problem? The answer is..YES!! Americans have believed themselves to be a priviledged class of people for many years. We are a fast food, fast car, fast everything generation of people. The problem here is that when we get a small headache or something is painful, we reach for the pill bottle. It does not help anyone that there are countless ads on television about this pill and that drug. In fact, if your kid is growing up looking at television, why are you surprised that he/she is reaching for the pills or the drugs?

The internet, while great for being the information highway, is also a tool for unscrupulous companies who want to go around the laws and sell drugs online through doctors who are willing to supply the prescriptions without seeing the patient. Online pharmacies are filling the prescriptions. Thousands of people are ordering the drugs this way and having them delivered via delivery services. It got so bad in Appalachia that those companies had to put on more trucks to deal with the demand.

Unfortunately, the problem lies in the fact that if you have internet access, it is possible to go to an online pharmacy and order whatever drug you are hooked on by simply handing over a credit card number. When you understand that about 95% of the drugs sold online are controlled substances, you get an idea of the magnatude of the problem, maybe.

Law enforcement at the national level is trying to cope with the problem but rogue pharmacies are popping up more and more often. Obviously, there is money to be made here. Whereever greed comes in, lawlessness will happen. The statistics are not good at all. It seems that 34 rogue pharmacies dispensed more than 98.5 million dosages of hydrocodone (like Vicodin) last year. This is not going to go away anytime soon. So, if you have children that have internet access, it would be a good idea to monitor where that person is going online. It might save their life.

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