Jane Velez-Mitchell, over at CNN, shares the following opinion about the new face of addiction in America, due to the rapid growth of prescription drug addiction:

America, we need to wake up! A prescription written on a pad by a doctor does not equal safe. When prescribed responsibly, taken as directed and kept out of reach of children, painkillers, anti-depressants, anti-anxiety meds — any pill — can be a godsend to the people who need those drugs to live day-to-day. But all too often, those tablets intended for one particular patient get into the hands, the mouths, the bloodstreams of those just looking to get high.

In my new book, “iWant,” I talk about my addiction to alcohol. Before I got sober, I would occasionally take a Valium with a glass of wine. Alcohol was my main vice. I wasn’t a pill addict, but I did pop a few. Want to know how I got them? Well it wasn’t from a doctor. I got them from friends. That’s how it works….

So how do we even start to cure this epidemic? First and foremost we need to stop expecting to get a pill for every ache and pain we complain to our doctors about. Addiction specialist Dr. Drew Pinsky pointed out recently on my show, “Issues,” that, “The medicines we have today are miraculous. They are spectacularly effective. Thank goodness we have these substances. Only because there’s a dark side to this, we have to become less dependent on them and seek them less.”

Click here to read the whole piece. It’s eye opening and thought-provoking.

Tags: addiction, drugs