Dr. Rosenthal explained in an article in The New York Times on Jan 31 , 1999 that he had been disciplined for misusing prescription forms to obtain sleeping and diet pills, but he said another person had stolen the forms and used them.
The report noted that while rates of illicit and prescription drug abuse are relatively low, the rate of medication misuse — particularly of opioid pain killers — has risen sharply: 11 percent of active-duty personnel reported misusing prescription drugs in 2008, up from 2 percent in 2002.
The findings reported here may not generalize to individuals who are misusing prescription opiates, although it has been suggested in other studies (Reynolds et al. 2000).
Results suggest some young adults are misusing prescription stimulants for weight loss and that this behavior is associated with other problematic weight loss strategies.
Of the 16 women who reported misusing prescription medications in this time period, 12 (75% of prescription medication users) reported using opioid analgesics like Vicodin, Percocet, Dilaudid, Fentanyl and Lortab.
Opioid abuse is a concern as 80% of heroin users reported starting out misusing prescription opioids.
Misusing prescription drugs, with or without a prescription, is illegal, as is passing out these substances to others.
A vast majority — 86percentt — of young, urban injection drug users started misusing prescription opioids before turning to heroin, according to surveys by the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
The fact is that the government's own statistics show most people start misusing prescription pills that are not prescribed to them.
Most people who start misusing prescription pills didn't have the medication prescribed to them, and more people are turning to cheaper, more dangerous street drugs like heroin.
