Collegiate Times

America is currently struggling with two drug-related conflicts. One is the ever-popular war on drugs.

This battle has been raging in the streets for decades, resulting in the death and arrests of countless people. It's all done in the name of protecting society from these evil substances that are supposedly responsible for all of life's ills. But this is not about that old conflict. There is another drug war going on-- and this one has the potential to do much more harm than any overblown moral crusade.

While the abuse of illegal drugs is dangerous in its own right, a growing number of legal drugs are having a negative impact on our society. In 2002, the National Survey on Drug Use and Health reported that an estimated 29.6 million Americans have abused prescription pain relievers. By 2005 that number had grown to 32.7 million and shows no sign of slowing.

Part of this trend can be attributed to the aging baby boomers driving up demand and usage. Another part of this trend is also related to the continued decline of the health of the average American, who leads the world in obesity. But this level of drug abuse applies to more than just the obese and the elderly.

Teenagers are also abusing prescription drugs at a record rate. A 2005 survey done by Monitoring the Future revealed that high school students are more commonly abusing prescription painkillers such as Vicodin and OxyContin. The abuse of OxyContin, a potent painkiller nearly as addictive as heroin, is up from 4 percent in 2002 to 5.5 percent in 2005 for 12th grade students alone.

Rates of abuse are even higher with Vicodin, which was at 9.5 percent in 2005. People die from these drugs the same way they die from illegal drugs. But the danger isn't in the legality.

The pharmaceutical industry has become big business, boasting profits in the billions and influence at the highest level of government. Anybody in the drug industry, legal or illegal, knows that it is a very profitable business.

There's a lot of money to be made in people taking prescription drugs and as a business every company strives to sustain it. The problem is that healthy people don't take these drugs. Those vast profits come from the pockets of the sick. So there's an unfortunate incentive to keep people unhealthy.

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