

Nowadays in our society drugs and prescription medications have become much easier items to get your hands on. Even with all of the laws against drugs and making medications prescribed people somehow still get their hands on these drugs illegally. With this being said, this has caused many deaths and lifelong illnesses. The drugs I am going to hone in on are ADHD medications. These harmless seeming drugs can be very detrimental to someone who is not taking these drugs with precaution. In sum I think these medications should be a lot more regulated throughout our country, to lower the overdose and death rate of people using these stimulants non-prescribed, we should make people trying to get these medications go through more intense testing to make sure they actually have ADD/ADHD and are not just trying to get them for illegal usage. 

These medications can be very under estimated on how strong they actually are. These drugs are prescribed for a reason and some people just think of them almost like candy. With these medications being very strong the legal penalty is also very steep. The penalty differs from state to state but according to Criminal defense Lawyer the penalty in South Carolina for first offense of possession of the medication with no prescription includes a "$5,000 fine, up to two years in prison, or both. Second offenses are felonies, and incur a fine of up to $5,000, up to five years in prison, or both. Third and subsequent offenses incur a fine of fine of up to $10,000, up to five years in prison, or both" (Criminaldefenselawyer.com). Although these laws and penalties differ from state to state the penalty does not get much slighter than that. People who possess these medications without the prescription do not realize the risk they are putting themselves in until they get caught with them. With this being said, if these drugs were more regulated less people would have these medications non-prescribed and less people would end up in prison. 

Health has become a big issue in the United States especially in the past 20 years. This is due to fast food, cancer, disease, and....DRUGS. Sadly drugs have become a significant part of society over the years. When most people think of drugs they think of marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and so on. The drugs typically down played are those that can be most dangerous. Such as Vyvanse, Adderall, Ritalin, and other prescription medications. These medications are prescribed by doctors to a single individual to use for a certain issue that they have. Which is fine, it becomes and issue when an individual fakes having a serious issue just to get the prescription and sell them to their peers to make money. Which causes people who are not supposed to be taking these medications to have access to them. Which brings me to the point I am making that this can be very unhealthy for these people non-prescribed. These medications are specifically designed to help certain people with certain issues. When they are consumed by someone without the medical issue it can be detrimental to their health. With reference from webmd.com, the health issues that can be caused by these medications are heart disease, high blood pressure, seizure, irregular heartbeat, abuse, addiction, and psychiatric problems. "Adderall XR is already illegal in Canada due to its alleged role in kiddie heart attacks" (exiledonline.com). These medications do not need to be illegal here but they do need to be used in the correct way and more strictly prescribed. This is why the prescription and strict regulation of these medications is necessary. If these medications can be more regulated in the United States, it can improve the heath of our country tremendously.

The long-term health effects as listed above are very serious, but there are also short-term side effects. According to a survey conducted by Consumer Reports, 14 side effects exist from taking ADHD medications. The most common side effects consist of: decreased appetite, loss of sleep, weight loss, upset stomach, and irritability. These side effects may not seem like a big deal but over time it can be very unhealthy. If you can imagine having to wake up every morning for school or work and never having a good night of sleep that would effect you over time and cause you to slack off on your job or at school. Often times we humans look for the easy way out and just think about the present and not the future. So lets say you have a big project due and you take an ADHD medication non-prescribed to help you get it done. In the moment it seems fine because you are just thinking about getting that one project done, but in the future when you lose sleep because of the medicine it could cause you to make a bad grade on another assignment because you were exhausted because you could not sleep well. Which in reality taking the medication may help you get one assignment done but in the end you have to think to yourself "Is it really worth the risk to take the easy way out and take this medication to help me finish my assignment when you could be causing your body harm and may cause laziness and bad grades in the future?" Once these side effects are looked at more seriously the non-prescription use of these medications will greatly decrease. The sad thing is most people will not stop using them non-prescribed until the health issues or side effects have negatively affected them.

I actually have a little bit of personal experience regarding this topic. This goes along with the addictive side effect. One of my dad's long time friends that he grew up in college with has a daughter that is in college. She took the medication Adderall when she was not prescribed it. She only took it when she had a big paper or project to do and both of her parents knew she was doing that. None of them thought it was a big deal. Not long after she started taking these medications she started getting addicted to them and taking more than is even recommended for people who are prescribed. She was taking it multiple times daily. Soon enough she found herself in the emergency room because she took too many and overdosed because she was so addicted. This could happen to any person. Thankfully she was lucky enough to live but this just goes to show how powerful these stimulants can be and when you do not use them in the correct manner they can be very harmful. Once the addiction is started its very hard to stop. You probably know that feeling. Have you ever been addicted to something? Something as simple as biting your nails or caffeine can be hard to stop, but quitting a drug addiction is a lot harder. So it is best to go ahead and have the will power to tell yourself not to take the drug. This will keep you from putting your health at risk!

One of the biggest issues/arguments I have regarding this topic is that $7.2 billion is made per year off of ADHD drug sales alone according to cchrint.org. This just makes me think that they over prescribe these medications on purpose knowing that they will make a lot of money off of it and they do not think of the health and well being of other people. According to cchrint.org 5 million kids are diagnosed with ADHD in the United States alone. "In fact the U.S. has the unfortunate distinction of being the world's leader when it comes to child drugging"(cchrint.org). Is this really what we want our country to be viewed as? This is a very big problem that they are making a business out of giving children drugs. Money can be a good thing but also a very bad thing. People get money hungry and are willing to do almost anything to get money. In this case they are willing to over prescribe children medications to make money. There is no way you can look at this and make it feel right. Doctors know that they can take advantage of children and their parents because they have concerned parents that come into their office worried about their child that isn't making good grades and they do not give the child a thorough test to see if they have ADHD and just prescribe them medication. This is sad that they are willing to just give out these medications with almost no testing at all just because they want money. Down the road this could really affect these children's health. It is not their fault at all because the doctor told them they needed it so they believed the doctor and took it. "The only "test" for ADHD is a checklist of behaviors.  That's it."(cchrint.org) This just shows that the "test" they give you to see if you have ADHD is not even really a test. It is more of a conversation they have with you and they just determine if they think you have it or not. "The beauty of ADD lies in the fact that there is no standardized clinical test to diagnose the disorder." (exiledonline.com). People know they can easily get prescribed while knowing they do not actually have ADHD because they do not have an actual standardized test to tell if you actually have it or not. This is why the ADHD drug industry has become such a big thing. They just make a lot of money out of it and they are too "money hungry" to stop over-prescribing these medications. It is definitely worth making the tests more strict and losing a little money than just giving out the drugs with almost no test and giving children health problems. 

People get their hands on these stimulants in countless ways. In today's society people can get these drugs with putting in almost no effort at all. The most popular place these medications are used with no prescription is in college. Students who are prescribed will sell them to other students for a cheap price and soon enough most people have the medication without a prescription. This can be dangerous for the individuals buying these drugs and also for the person selling them. If the distributor gets caught selling these stimulants he will face the penalty of a hefty fine and/or jail time. If the people buying these drugs get caught in possession of these with no prescription they will also face the same punishment. It is very easy for the distributor to get caught because one of the people he is selling to can easily rat him out for selling these stimulants. The more regulated these drugs are the less we have to worry about people distributing these medications. Also some people feel that there is an unfair advantage when students take these medications so they feel like if other students can take them they can take them too. This is not true because it is understood that ADHD medication will not affect people in any way if they do not have ADHD. They may have the side effects but no clear advantage will be given. According to additudemag.com "one in five people do not respond to the two standard stimulants, methylphenidate and amphetamine." (additudemag.com). This proves that these stimulants do not work for all individuals. In most cases the individuals that these stimulants do not affect do not have ADHD. If the tests given to individuals to see if they have ADHD were more intense and strict we would not have these problems of people without ADHD getting prescribed. 

Believe it or not there is actually another way to cure/cope with ADHD. Many people do not even know about any other treatment other than prescription drugs. According to psychcentral.com people can also seek psychotherapy when trying to help their ADHD. I think doctors should start advising people to go to psychotherapy instead of just prescribing medications to them right away. A lot less people would try to fake having ADHD if this was the case. Before they get prescribed these medications, people should have to meet with a psychotherapist multiple times and they can determine if the individual needs the prescription or not. As much as people and doctors may hate this philosophy, it undeniably will help with the over-prescription of ADHD medications. This may take a little more work for doctors because they can not just write a prescription and be done, but in the long run it would be very beneficial for the health and well being of people in our country. The over-prescription of these drugs is definitely present but can be improved with a few minor changes in a couple procedures.

Essentially the argument of the over-prescription of ADHD medication can be fixed in a somewhat rapid way. With the help of a few doctors and psychotherapists I believe that this problem is not a very long-term fix. In most cases people would agree with the change to a stricter ADHD prescription policy. The people who do not agree are most likely those that use these medications illegally. Over the years the use of not only ADHD medications, but drugs in general have become a more popular thing. This has become a negative thing because of the ways and reasons individuals consume these drugs. Drugs have become a source of income for uneducated people. They sell them on the streets to their friends and make a little "business" out of illegally dealing drugs and prescription medication. They have also been used for other negative reasons like people dealing with depression thinking if they take some of these drugs it will make them less depressed. This is not true at all, most drugs will enhance depression but will not cure it unless it is a specific depression prescription medication. After researching this topic of ADHD medication it has really strengthened my argument of making stricter prescription processes ... . specifically for ADHD medication. Seeing how these medications can really change people and agonize their future health and well-being has really given me a strong point of view. Fixing this problem 100% is not possible, but making a difference is very possible. Fixing this problem reminds me of underage alcohol consumption in some ways such that no matter what you do you will never stop 100% of underage individuals from consuming alcohol but you can slow it down. Making teens take an alcohol class and informing them of the dangers can slow it down, but it will never be completely stopped. With this being said I think we could do the same thing about prescription ADHD medications. We can make people take a class before being prescribed and even visit a therapist and not only will this make doctors turn down more people for prescriptions, but it will make less people come in and try to get the ADHD medications knowing they do not have it because they will not want to go through the whole process of getting the prescription if they may not even get prescribed. The people who actually need it will still go because if it is important enough to them they will be willing to go through the entire process of getting the prescription. This is not a fix to the problem but it is a start to the reduction of over-prescription of ADHD medication. After reading all the health issues and side effects these medications can cause if they are put in the wrong hands ... . Would you want your child taking these drugs without being properly tested by a doctor?

