There has been a new growing epidemic of drug abuse in recent years; people are now choosing prescription pills as their new drug of choice. The use, abuse, and death caused by prescription drugs have increased significantly over the past two years. All types of prescription pills are more easily accessible from their doctors, family members or on the street. Doctors hand out prescriptions for pills, such as pain management, muscle relaxant and anti-anxiety pills, as if they were candy and not potentially dangerous to consumers. In today's society, doctors prescribe pills to Americans, and the distribution of prescription pills should be monitored and controlled more carefully. While there are people who benefit from pain pills, such as patients who are terminally ill, there are too many who take advantage of and abuse prescription pills. Opioid analgesic painkillers, one of the fastest growing segments of prescription drug abuse, are drugs such as Oxycontin and Vicodin and many other narcotic pills. Side effects of Vicodin include dizziness, sedation, lightheadedness, brain fog, anxiety, fear, addiction, mood changes, respiratory depression, and many others (Spratto and Woods 809). According to Verispan, a prescription information database (Hansen), more than 201 million prescriptions were written in 2007 for products that have the potential for abuse. It was the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study that found a 96.6 percent increase in prescription pill deaths related to pain relief from 1997 to 2002. During the same period, cocaine overdose deaths increased by 12.9% (Hansen). The National Survey on Drug Use and Health found that the number of new non-medical users of pre...... middle of paper ...... amount of pill prescriptions should hopefully reduce the number of deaths and prescription pills possibility of abuse in patients. Works Cited Eckles, Crimson. Personal experience. March 2004-May 2007. Hanson, Karmen. “A problem with the pill: Rx abuse is growing faster.” National Conference of State Legislatures. March 2010. Web. 2 June 2011. .Inciardi, PhD, James A. “OPPOIDS, SUBSTANCE ABUSE AND ADDICTIONS SECTION”. Pain Medicine. Center for Drug and Alcohol Studies. 2009. Network. June 2, 2011.Johnson, Jimmy. Personal interview. June 11, 2011. Rodriguez, Joe. Personal interview. June 12, 2011. Sprat, George R. and Adrienne L. Woods. 20th Anniversary Edition 2011 Delmar Nurse's Drug Manual. Clinton Park: Delmar Cengage Learning, 2011. Print.