Taking responsibility

In a recent University of Maine class, statistics from Marcella Sorg from Maine’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner were cited: “90 percent of Maine’s drug-related deaths are caused by prescription drugs licit and illicit, alone or in combination.”

As a 56-year-old Maine resident, a University of Maine graduate student, a licensed alcohol and drug counselor, a daughter of an 82-year-old woman, as well as a caring individual, this statistic terrifies and angers me!

We need to fix what is broken, and we as an educated society need to go back to the basics, i.e., accountability. The medical field needs to step up to the plate and take ownership for its role in these tragic deaths. Shame on them and shame on us.

Shame on the medical field, because each doctor does not take the time needed to sit with his-her client in order to keep more accurate records. Instead, the doctor, PA, etc., writes a prescription to pacify the person in front of him or her. Shame on us, because we as a society stand for it. We shut our eyes to this statistic and others and ignore that this actually happens, until we lose a loved one.

The medical field and society both may want to correct this statistic, but neither will make the effort to ensure that prescription drugs are not given to patients to shut them up. Today’s society is pill happy. If you have a problem, here, take a pill. Why not try other alternatives? Some alternatives can be as simple as suggesting to a patient to call a friend or family member when lonely rather than taking what was prescribed. Keeping accurate, current records of all the medications that each person is prescribed and from which doctors would cut the amount of drug-related deaths.

If each medical professional and person did his or her part, this loss could decrease.

Sherry Ladd

Bangor