When you hear “drug addict” the first thing many people envision is a hairy man slinked over a can of coins on the side of the road. Unfortunately, the reality is the last thing you probably imagine. The reality is a successful businesswoman who needs to keep sharp or a stressed dad who needs to unwind.

The reality is your friend’s dad or your mom’s sister. It is the men and women that makeup America. From the bad to the bland to the bold, this epidemic has left no one. For a frame of scale, the Foundation of a Drug-Free World estimates that 15 million Americans abuse pharmaceutical drugs. 

This has swept the nation quite swiftly. According to the SAMHSA Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality, “treatment admissions for substance use disorder services for prescription opioids alone increased more than 5-fold from 2000-2010 in the U.S.” That span of time is probably within your lifetime. Has so much really changed since you were born? 

I’m sure you all remember the endless escapade of “Don’t Do Drugs” campaigns. They talked about out-the-window adventures people had on acid (literally) and the charred lungs people got from smoking, but did they ever touch on the horrors of pharmaceutical drugs? No, that would’ve been too controversial at the time. These after-school specials hardly prepared us for the world we were coming into. So when did Vicodin become the new cocaine? 

Since Big Pharma.

The massive companies heading most of the “progress” in the pharmaceutical industry are accordingly referred to as “Big Pharma.” They were dubbed this name not only because they have a tight hold on pharmaceuticals, but also the politics surrounding them. They are the reason that the United States leads the world in opioid use by far, consuming roughly 80 percent of all the world’s opioids. It is only here that they have been able to infiltrate the legislation process. 

Nine out of 10 members of the House of Representatives and 97 out of the nation’s 100 senators have taken campaign “contributions” from pharmaceutical companies seeking to gain favor. 

Wow, finally they agree on something. 

But seriously, is the one thing our representatives unanimously agree on really drugs? This doesn’t seem to reflect the political climate. Last I checked the overuse of drugs is still bad. So why are they so flexible on long-standing American values? Well, above all those good-ol workin’ family values stands the most prized of them all: money-making. 

I hope this goes to reiterate the fact that they don’t really care about us. According to the CDC, “two out of three overdose deaths [involve] an opioid-like prescription.” Surely the severity of the problem they helped create has not escaped them. No, they know. But hey, there are campaign contributions to collect and taxable profits to be made, so they figure who cares. And if someone does, eh, I guess they’ll have some new medication for that, huh? 

Don’t lose sight of reality, though. They may want you to think “drugs” are reserved for crazy hobos and  “pharmaceuticals” are privy only to sophisticated men in white collars, but don’t let them slip the rug out from under you. If “drugs aren’t the answer” then neither are pharmaceuticals.

 *This does not apply to people who are struggling from chemical imbalances*