Legal Drugs

Across America, there is a continual a rise in the misuse of legal drugs. People are taking others medications, buying them off the street, and purchasing them online. It has been estimated that 9 million people use prescription drugs for non-medical purposes. Internet sales of legal drugs is one of the key factors for this spike in prescription drug use. An example of this is the spam e-mail that many of us receive on a daily basis, offering any drug you "need" by having their online doctor provide you with a prescription on the spot. One online pharmacy sold 9.3 million doses of the generic versions of Valium and Vicodin in 18 months. These types of sites are leading to a national epidemic of abuse.

Many Americans and misled into thinking that because it is a prescription drug it is not harmful. This is not the case however. "There's an assumption that these are legal, so they're OK — that they can use them and walk away without any consequences," says H. Westley Clark, director of SAMHSA's Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT). "They don't seem to realize that this misuse can lead to serious problems with addiction." Even though prescription drugs are legal, they are still drugs. Legal drugs now play a factor in a quarter of all overdose deaths reported in the United States.