9781422282540

13 CHAPTER ONE: WHAT ARE PRESCRIPTION DRUGS?

OVERDOSE DEATHS FROM PRESCRIPTION VERSUS ILLEGAL DRUGS

2003 2005 2007 2009 2011 2013 12,640 15,352 19,601 20,848 22,810 22,767

Prescription Drugs

Female

5,191 6,351 8,251 8,740 9,771 10,019 7,449 9,001 11,350 12,108 13,039 12,748 7,653 8,923 9,418 8,446 10,284 14,775 1,854 2,251 2,301 2,043 2,636 3,707 5,799 6,672 7,117 6,403 7,648 11,068

Male

Illegal Drugs

Female

Male

Source: National Center on Health Statistics. “Overdose Death Rates.” http://www.drugabuse.gov/related-topics/trends-statistics/overdose-death-rates.

as Valium and Quaaludes, and stimulants such as Adderall and Ritalin. But first, let’s look back at the history of prescription drugs and discuss how they work.

THE EVOLUTION OF PRESCRIPTION DRUGS

At the dawn of the American Revolution, there were only about 400 doctors for the 2.4 million colonists. Many people didn’t trust those doctors, and for good reason. Even Dr. Benjamin Rush, arguably colonial America’s most respected doctor (and a signer of the Declaration of Independence), believed that most illnesses could be cured by removing large quantities of blood from his patients. Medical historians believe Rush accidentally killed many people, including none other than George Washington, with this bleeding technique. America’s understandable distrust of doctors set the stage, in the late 18th and 19th centuries, for the expansion of the patent medicine industry. In theory, a patent medicine should have unique healing ingredients— certainly, that’s what the term patent implies. But despite their name,