Washington – Over the last several years, without many people realizing it, the U.S. government has changed the focus of its anti-drug efforts, deemphasizing marijuana in favor of prescription drugs.
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A CBS News survey of government and nonprofit anti-drug groups has found a retreat from anti-marijuana campaigns over the past several years as prescription and over the counter drug abuse has grown amongst teens.
In fact, the Partnership for a Drug Free America, the nation’s largest creator of anti-drug messages, hasn’t produced a single anti-marijuana public service advertisement since 2005.
The change comes as a result of the decline in marijuana use amongst teens, and growing worry over the abuse of prescription drugs. Marijuana use has been declining for 10 years and past-month use is down 25 percent since 2001 according to the largest tracking study in the U.S., “Monitoring the Future” by the University of Michigan.
Meanwhile prescription drug abuse has held steady over the past five years according to the Partnership for a Drug-Free America, with nearly one in five teens (19 percent) abusing prescription medications to get high.
“There is a new threat in town,” Robert Dennisoton of the Office of National Drug Control Policy said.
The concern about pills has been highlighted by a string of high profile deaths like that of Heath Ledger, Anna Nicole Smith, and possibly Michael Jackson — all tied to the abuse of legal prescription drugs.
In an effort to spread awareness about the dangers of the misuse of prescription drugs, the Partnership for a Drug-Free America even refers to young people today as “Generation Rx” in TV advertisements that point to the dangers of misuse of those drugs.
“For this generation, high prevalence of prescription drug abuse was kicking in� there was a dawning, and a number of us began to feel that we need to do something about it,” said Sean Clark, executive vice president with the Partnership for a Drug-Free America.
The Office of National Drug Control Policy, the government’s drug policy wing, now dedicates all of its campaign resources directed at parents – some $14 million dollars since 2008 – to the abuse of prescription and over the counter drugs.
“The issue of prescription drug abuse, which the Office of National Drug Control Policy has been shouting about from the rooftops, it is a significant problem in this country,” National Drug Control Policy Director Gil Kerlikowske said on “The Early Show” last week.
Advocates for marijuana legalization argue that the shift from anti-marijuana to anti-pill messages has come at least in large part because prescription and over the counter medicines are far more deadly than marijuana.
“While it is the most widely used illicit drug, it is much less dangerous than prescription drugs,” said Bruce Mirken of the Marijuana Policy Project, a group that supports marijuana legalization.
“The government is talking about the dangers of acetaminophen – this stuff is given out like candy and can kill,” he said. “When you put it in that context, marijuana almost looks benign.”
The addictiveness of marijuana – or lack thereof – compared to other drugs is also cited by supporters.
“The bottom line is the Opiates and Stimulates are much more addictive than marijuana, those that try it are likely to return to them after first use.” said Mitch Earleywine, associate professor of psychology at the State University of New York. “Maybe 9 percent of marijuana users develop problems but 14-23 percent of prescription drug abusers end up saying can’t quit or report withdrawal when they want to stop.”
Advocates also point to recently-released data obtained by the Web site ProCon.org which indicates that prescription drugs are responsible for far more deaths than marijuana.
The report compared data on deaths due to marijuana with FDA-approved medications. It found that the approved drugs — which included anti-psychotics, Attention Deficit Disorder medications, painkillers and other prescription drugs — were suspected as the primary cause of 10,008 deaths and as a secondary cause in 1,679 more.
Another report recently issued by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement indicated that prescription drugs caused more deaths than illicit drugs – even including alcohol-related automobile accidents. Prescription drugs were the cause of more than 25 percent of drug related deaths in the state. Marijuana was not listed as a cause of death last year in Florida.
There are now more new abusers of prescription drugs each year than there are abusers of marijuana, according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health from the Department of Health and Human Services. About 2.15 million people started using prescription pain relievers to get high in 2007, while 2.09 million people started using marijuana that year.
As one of the frum therapists dealing with addictions and substance abuse, I can report that my experience for the past two years or so involves prescription drugs more so than alcohol, cocaine, or marijuana. On occasion, there are physician prescriptions that are somehow obtained from doctors. Most of the time, the pills are bought on the street, and they are expensive. The addicts either drain the family money to support their habit, or they get involved in various forms of crime to subsidize it. At least, the drugs being ingested are of a known origin, and probably do not contain impurities that introduce other dangers.
The degree of physical dependency of all the pills described in the article (opiates and others) is certainly strong. The physical dependency of marijuana is negligible, though there is research that supported that it does occur. The frum community is still in denial that addictions in our community.
Hopefully the mental health industry will take this to heart and reduce the amount of pills they prescribe for every diagnosis.
My wife ended up in the hospital for two weeks because her doctor told her to take a ‘mood enhancing drug’ that has many,many,many side effects without warning her of any..Had she been warned of the amount of potential side effects.she never would of taken it.So please before you take a medication make sure you know what you MAY BE GETTING INTO.
hello war on percocet.
The common cold is more deadly than pot
Pot can never be lethal or physically addictive. Pills kill and are highly addictive. If california would legalize it they would wipe out theire debt with the taxes earned and save on law enforcement. The war on pot has long been lost and was stupid to begin with. The US can’t afford not to legalize it.