The hidden cost of prescription drugs

WASHINGTON — A daylong, nationwide effort to get people to turn in old or unwanted prescription drugs collected more than 121 tons of unused medicine.

"The Take-Back Campaign was a stunning nationwide success that cleaned out more than 121 tons of pills from America's medicine cabinets, a crucial step toward reducing the epidemic of prescription drug abuse that is plaguing this nation," DEA Acting Administrator Michele M. Leonhart said in a statement Tuesday.

DEA spokesman David Ausiello said people across the country flocked to more than 4,000 sites to get rid of old drugs and just about anything they got with a prescription that they didn't need any more, including needles.

Authorities said a woman in Jacksonville, Ill., handed over drugs she's collected for the last 50 years while a man in Troy, Mo., hauled a kitchen drawer packed with medicine to a drop-off site.

http://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/dea-drug-take-back-661642.html

SamCogar wrote:

WASHINGTON — A daylong, nationwide effort to get people to turn in old or unwanted prescription drugs collected more than 121 tons of unused medicine.

"The Take-Back Campaign was a stunning nationwide success that cleaned out more than 121 tons of pills from America's medicine cabinets, a crucial step toward reducing the epidemic of prescription drug abuse that is plaguing this nation," DEA Acting Administrator Michele M. Leonhart said in a statement Tuesday.

DEA spokesman David Ausiello said people across the country flocked to more than 4,000 sites to get rid of old drugs and just about anything they got with a prescription that they didn't need any more, including needles.

Authorities said a woman in Jacksonville, Ill., handed over drugs she's collected for the last 50 years while a man in Troy, Mo., hauled a kitchen drawer packed with medicine to a drop-off site.

http://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/dea-drug-take-back-661642.html

Quite simply many people demand certain drugs because they don't have to pay for them or pay a lesser amount for them. Since the insurance companies or taxpayers are paying a majority of the cost, there is little incentive to act responsibily and get the medicines you need instead of the one's you desire.

Thirdly, Since we have created a system of entitlement, people seem to think they are entitled the newest meds and the drug companies play right to that desire in advertizing. Doctors prescribe these meds at the demand of the patient, instead of growing a backbone and telling a person that a cheaper med will serve just as well.

ziggy wrote:

Quite simply many people demand certain drugs because they don't have to pay for them or pay a lesser amount for them. Since the insurance companies or taxpayers are paying a majority of the cost, there is little incentive to act responsibily and get the medicines you need instead of the one's you desire.

How is the average person, who is not trained in medicine, to know the medicines he or she "needs"? Why would anyone "desire" a medication that wasn't what the doctor ordered?

I'm an average person and by your standards I'm not even amoung the brightest of folks, .........................

ziggy wrote:So should we go back to prohibiting the public advertisement of prescription drugs?

What needs to happen is health insurance work like car or home owners insurance. Instead of health insurance paying for every visit to the doctor's office and many covering the majority of the cost of the medicines we take, coverage needs to be there for the catastrophic illnesses.

ziggy wrote:

What needs to happen is health insurance work like car or home owners insurance. Instead of health insurance paying for every visit to the doctor's office and many covering the majority of the cost of the medicines we take, coverage needs to be there for the catastrophic illnesses.

So how should this change come about? Consumers of health insurance seem to be willing to pay for the coverage beyond just catastrophic illnesses.