Many patients visit pain clinics/pill mills to get prescriptions to help them cope with pain. The proliferation of pill mills has become a debated health problem nationally. A pill mill is a licensed store whereby narcotics are dispensed and prescribed without a legit medical purpose. Most pill mills operate under the name pain clinic where they help patients to manage pain. Most narcotic painkillers are dispensed in pain clinics, for instance, diazepam, oxycodone, morphine, and methadone (Surratt et al. 2014). Pill mills should be eradicated because doctors give prescriptions without upholding the Hippocratic Oath thus causing many deaths and prescription drug addiction.
The existence of pill mills economically and ethically affects the society. The presence of pill mills affects the community economically because it costs insurance companies making them increase premiums. On the other hand, pill mills are unethical because the lead drug abuse in the society. This is because; there is the illegal sale of narcotics in these pill mills without a precise prescription (Staff, 2012). Therefore, pill mills lead to addiction in the society and the increase of drug trafficking. Even though the same pill mills serve legitimate patients in need of narcotic painkillers, they serve thousands of addicts in the society as they create new drug users in the society. Pharmacists and doctors play a vital role in curbing the proliferation of pill mills. They are supposed to stop prescription drug abuse by helping individuals who are addicted to prescription drugs.
The proliferation of pill mills has adverse effects on the nursing practice. They have led to an increase in drug addiction thus closure of genuine pill mills or rather pain clinics. The spread of pain clinics has led to major crackdowns on illegal drugs and this affects patients in need of these drugs. The Drug Enforcement Administration agents accuse the pharmacists of dispensing many narcotics and take away the available narcotics in their stores, and this is a loss for them (Collins, 2010). In essence, pill mills have led to an increase in prescription drug abuse and it is vital to put an end to them.
References
Collins, T. R. (2010). Invasion of the pill mills in South Florida. Time, April 13.
Staff, M. C. (2012, October 11). Prescription Drug Abuse. Retrieved from Mayo Clinic: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/prescription-drug-abuse
Surratt, H. L., O'Grady, C., Kurtz, S. P., Stivers, Y., Cicero, T. J., Dart, R. C., & Chen, M. (2014). Reductions in prescription opioid diversion following recent legislative interventions in Florida. Pharmacoepidemiology and drug safety, 23(3), 314-320.
