A Drugged Nation Is Not Healthy

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Hernando Today

A Publication of the Tampa Tribune

A Drugged Nation Is Not Healthy

By DR. DOMENICK J. MAGLIO

January 16, 2008

Most Americans are too busy in their daily lives to face the obvious: we

are a society dependent on drugs. We fought only half the war on drugs.

" Just Say No " should have targeted not only street drugs but all

detrimental drugs including prescription ones.

There is little ethical or moral difference between a drug pusher in the

school yard seducing kids into buying the latest feel good drug and the

pharmacological/medical industry dispensing antipsychotic medication to

children as young as toddlers. Both the street drug or the prescription

drug will lead the child down the same path of chemical dependency that

ends in being a taker from rather than a giver to society.

According to the national Teen Drug Survey released Dec. 11 by the White

House, teenagers are turning from street drugs to prescription drugs

such as OxyContin and Vicodin. The study conducted by the University of

Michigan Institute on Social Research, found a modest decrease in

marijuana and other street drugs and an increase in prescription drugs.

Walters, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy,

said, " 71 percent of young people have reported their source of supply

is their parent's or friend's medicine cabinet. " Theo Milonopoulos,

" Survey Finds Teens Smoking Less Pot, But Popping More Pills, " Tampa

Tribune, Dec. 12, pg. 13.

It is a deplorable commentary on our nation that the Center of Medicare

and Medicaid says 21 percent of nursing home patients, who do not have a

psychosis diagnosis are prescribed antipsychotic, off label, medication.

Lucette Lagnado, " Nursing Homes Quiet Elderly with Antipsychotic Drugs, "

Tampa Tribune, Dec. 7. To give humans of any age medication to induce

docility is inhumane. When children are given off label psychotic

medication it is more tragic as their lives are ahead rather than behind

them.

Although children naturally fluctuate in their mood from laughing to

crying, they are being prescribed off-label antipsychotic medication as

toddlers. Before the 1990s it was generally accepted in the mental

health profession to be illogical and unethical to label a child with a

bi-polar disorder. Certainly drugging a child with an antipsychotic

medication was considered going against the Hippocratic principle of

doing no harm. Assisting nursing homes to control the elderly and

parents to control their children is not any better than caging the

elderly and children for control.

Our society has become more than drug tolerant, we have become a drugged

society. Drug advertisements dominate women's magazines and television

commercials. You have to wait an hour just to have a prescription

filled. Recreational drugs of Hollywood celebrities to " roids " of sports

idols, to sexual stimulants for anyone, psychotic drugs for the elderly

and for children to control behavior indicate drugs have permeated every

segment of our society. Using chemicals for daily life is epidemic.

Drugs may temporarily relieve a particular problem. The side effects to

a person taking the drugs may be denied but are evident to those around

us. The number of people unable to exist without mind-altering

medication is destroying our power to be a vital, independent people. A

large number of people dependent on drugs eventually become dependent on

the government " safety net. " This leads to a sick and declining society.

We must reject the celebrity's lifestyle, advertising and the

pharmaceutical/medical experts or sacrifice our own and our children's

bodies, minds and spirits to the long-term adverse impact of drugs.

The joys of life are best experienced in a conscious state. Life's ups

and downs can be painful at times although they always provide us an

opportunity to learn how to better handle the next challenge of life.

Problems never cease, healthy people just get better at solving them.

Americans have established a reputation as an ingenious people who can

overcome life's obstacles. We cannot surrender our character as a people

who perseveres until we get the job done. If we as a society continue

down the drugged path when the going gets tough, we will forget the

advantages, assets and wisdom left to us by our ancestors.

Restoring our national vigor requires the discipline to say " no " to any

unnecessary drugs.

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