35: Are Prescription Drugs Really Safe

Steven Ginsburg: 0:00

When I was done and the advil and tylenol could do the trick Nicole flushed the pills down the toilet.

Steve Coughran: 0:05

This is the Addiction Recovery Podcast with Steven T Ginsburg, founder of Restore Detox Centers in sunny California. Enjoy your experience, Steven. One of the biggest misconceptions out there is that prescription drugs are safe just because they're prescribed by a doctor. But let me just read this stat to you that I came across 16.3 million people in the United States just in the United States alone misuse prescription drugs in a year. 22% of them nearly 23% in fact, or 3.7 million people misuse prescription drugs for the first time. And here's something that's even scarier than that In 2022, an estimated 5% of 12th graders reported misusing prescription drugs, which is crazy, I mean. Think about it. I mean, how many people were in your high school class when you had assemblies? How many people filled the gym?

Steven Ginsburg: 1:08

Easily northbound of 800 plus people easily.

Steve Coughran: 1:13

Yeah, I think I had about 500 in my school, so not as big as yours, big, but I mean, imagine 5%, that's 25 people in my school and in your school. That's 40 kids. People in my school and in your school, that's 40 kids that are abusing prescription drugs. That's just 12th graders. I mean, what about 11th graders and 10th graders and so on and so forth? And I think this is a big misconception out there that could be really dangerous, because people are trusting experts to prescribe them drugs and they're like okay. Well, my doctor said it's okay, so I guess they're safe, or maybe, and or I guess I should say they're leaning on this as a crutch to excuse themselves from misusing drugs. What are your thoughts on that?

Steven Ginsburg: 1:58

First off, I love the entire topic because there's so much merit to it where the entire landscape of sobriety and the solution is concerned. So, as always, thank you for putting us in this direction and so really going with what I get. The first thing that jumps out at me and I think of imperatively, is it says in the big book we are not doctors and we're not. We rely on medical professionals when needed and we rely on taking things as they're prescribed, how they're prescribed, and when we don't deviate from that, we are exactly where we need to be doing, exactly what we're supposed to do. When we deviate from that, we are in harm's way and that's technically a relapse and it's on us to start our sober time over again. That being said, because I want to hop around for a moment before I wrap up my answer, no, it doesn't surprise me to hear that there's that type of prescription drug abuse and misuse.

Steven Ginsburg: 3:00

There are so many professionals slash amateurs that are prescription chasers out there. We are in a watching world. Children see their parents model this behavior, they follow suit, and then there's too many times where the medicine cabinets get raided by ambitious teens and they have these parties where they all throw pills in a bowl and they take handfuls and see what happens. And where it all becomes so dangerous is if any pill that is out of our children's control is artificially manufactured. It can have fentanyl in it and can kill them. So across the board there is danger. It is a cautionary tale. Everything must be done perfectly and we've got to realize this is a real part of the problem where our nation and where this globally, where the world is concerned, where health, wellbeing and sobriety lies, yeah, for sure.

Steve Coughran: 3:50

And I mean and this isn't to denigrate doctors for sure I mean they definitely have their place and their benefit in society and they do a lot of goodwill and I think very, very, very, very, very few of them are malicious in their actions. But I mean, I think there's this trend where, you know, doctors are so busy trying to keep up with everything and their schedules just have more and more demands on them and they have people come to them for a variety of elements and it's so easy for doctors to just say, hey, look, let me just write a prescription, go away, Right, and then come back and see me if it returns and they're like wipe me, just write a prescription, go away, Right, and you know, then come back and see me if it returns and they're like, wipe their hands clean, Like okay, onto the next.

Steve Coughran: 4:31

And, like I said, that's nothing bad against doctors. But I think we as society, we have to understand that just because something is prescribed doesn't mean that it's safe. And and yeah, and then get into fentanyl, which is a scarier topic. You may think that it's a prescribed drug or it's a safe drug, but yeah, if it has any trace of fentanyl in it, it could be absolutely deadly.

Steven Ginsburg: 4:54

And listen and you and I have talked about this before, Steve one of the greatest parts of the text of the big book is the doctor's opinion by Dr William Silkworth, and that is a doctor who's in full support and wonderment of the miracle of recovery through sobriety in 12-step programming like AA.

Steven Ginsburg: 5:12

And there he is referencing like hey, we in the psychiatric community are at a loss and I help these people stop and they desperately want help. Yet when we see them work together collectively on the solution, they seem to manage to stay sober by following a few simple things, and my point within sharing that again is this and part of that few simple things is we take things as they're prescribed, we go and seek medical help and a prescription when it's a necessity and we never deviate from that, because that is not sobriety, that is drug use, and an elapse in sobriety is the misuse of any drug or mind altering substance or alcohol. And so it's just a great talking point, steve, and it's a great talking point as well for the youth of our nation, because we've got to be having these conversations, by the way, like we are right now, when early, and often thoroughly, leave no stone unturned, dig in, do the research, do some reading, have some conversations and get on to doing the next right thing.

Steve Coughran: 6:22

Yeah, and I think that's a good distinction, like you pointed out, where, yeah, if you're deviating from what's prescribed, you know from the doctor, yeah, that that's when you know that you're getting into some gray area.

Steven Ginsburg: 6:33

Totally. I want to share something personally with you that's really important to me. It's on my heart to share this with you. I had a sports hernia and I had to have surgery for it outpatient procedure and the anesthesia was tough on me. That's fine. And they gave me pain medication and I told them I'm a recovering addict and alcoholic and I told Nicole, look, you're going to have the medication. We're going to follow the prescription. I'm going to try at first not to take it and I told the doctor as much and he's like it's fine.

Steven Ginsburg: 7:01

I didn't really do too well because I tried to get up in the middle of the night. I collapsed from pain. I was like honey, get me what's prescribed for pain. I took it. I eventually was able to sleep as soon as I was past the threshold where I needed to take it as prescribed, under my wife's control. And, by the way, I was well over 10 years and at this point when the advil and tylenol could do the trick and Nicole flushed the pills down the toilet why? Because I don't need to run around with a loaded gun and see like if nothing gets shot. Yeah, I'm an addict, I'm an alcoholic. It's okay and it's important. I've got to say like would I be careless with those pills around our children? No. Would I be careless with those pills around someone in our community, at Restored? No. Would I be careless with those pills around a loved one? No. So I've got to be careful and pay homage to the gift of sobriety where that's concerned and where painkillers are concerned, and we are all subject to a lapse of judgment and to this cunning, baffling nature of this disease and a relapse. So again, I truly appreciate the topic. It's imperative that this is a talking point.

Steve Coughran: 8:09

Yeah, I agree and I, and when we get into that topic next week, when we get into safeguards and whether or not they make us weak, I mean that's a whole nother discussion. But I love that, how you put safeguards in place for yourself, knowing that, look, you can fall at any point back into, you know, drug abuse. And I think oftentimes we think, oh yeah, we're so strong, we're so tough, we have so much discipline. You know, we're so far past that that we don't put safeguards in place and that could be very, very dangerous. But we'll, we'll get into that next week in the episode. So make sure, if you're listening to this, you join us for that special episode, because that's going to be a really good one. But let's stay on point with this because you know, I think there's a major problem out there in the world when it comes to outsourcing accountability to others or other authorities that are perceived to be greater than ourselves. And let me explain what I'm talking about here when it comes to marijuana use.

Steve Coughran: 9:09

I live in Colorado and Denver and marijuana is legal here in the state, and I think it gives people an excuse to say, hey, look, if the government's making it legal, at least the state government, not on the federal level, but state level. If they're making it legal, then there the state government, not on the federal level, but state level. If they're making it legal, then there's probably no harm in it. I mean, the same thing is true with alcohol, which is a whole other episode we're doing here in the future too. Where is alcohol a drug? I mean, people are like, if I could get it from the liquor store and I could buy it legally, then it can't be that bad for me. Don't you think that same mindset carries over with prescription drugs? Or it's like hey, it's prescribed by a doctor, so it's at least it's not as bad as smoking Cocaine right, or shooting up heroin because a doctor gave it to me. Is that true?

Steven Ginsburg: 9:56

That mindset completely exists. It's a pitfall, it's an endangerment. Listen, people are over-medicated. Steve, I'm not blaming anyone. That is just the realm of the world we live in. There's too many muscle relaxers, there's too many painkillers and I am the first one who believes in medication as needed and when needed, and I believe it can be part of the solution. But it is just all too easy and all too not to mention, and we don't have enough time, days or hours. We haven't even talked about telemed, the internet, the fact that you can. You know how much you can do nowadays. You don't have to see any doctor, you jump right on a call, you jump run online, you can get anything you want. They're not even seeing people. I mean, the prescriptions are flying. So, yes, it's just there's an over-medication issue. Everything where that is concerned is about something and it all is detrimental and you've got to take it person by person, case by case. You've got to seek out that cautionary professional who understands always what's at stake. Look, steve, I barely made it out of high school, that's fine.

Steven Ginsburg: 11:07

I cannot tell you the beautiful partnerships, respectful, contemporary based partnerships I have and have had with medical professionals where I'm like, hey, here's my walk. I'm a recovering addict and alcoholic. Here's my clinical perception and experience with people of my kind. I need your help where medication management is concerned. I want your input, I want your opinion, I want you to participate in the solution and help teach me and I soak that up like a sponge and that's where people need to find that person who's got discernment, who puts their care and wellbeing first Many doctors and many other people and professionals like myself and others that caring individual who understands everyone's wellbeing is at stake. Medication management is imperative and important, but medication is absolutely a real problem.

Steve Coughran: 11:58

Yeah, I agree. And before we wrap up here, let me just give one more statistic and talk about the importance of communicating this with our kids, because you have two beautiful children that are so bright, they're so full of potential, and I have kids too, and these are important conversations you and I have talked about multiple times in the past. But check this out One in four teens report that they have taken a prescription drug that's not prescribed to them by a doctor at least once in their life. And so, yeah, like when you're young, it goes back to that whole thing where it's like hey, yeah, I grabbed this out of my mom's medicine cabinet. Hey, she's taking it for her back. It can't be that bad, it's not that dangerous if it's prescribed by a doctor. Taking it for her back, it can't be that bad, it's not that dangerous if it's prescribed by a doctor, and definitely, like, go down a very, very slippery slope. So I guess my question to you, stephen, is when and how do we talk to kids about this?

Steve Coughran: 12:55

or like what do we do about this?

Steve Coughran: 12:57

So we can overcome this one in four stat Steven.

Steven Ginsburg: 13:01

And you know I'm repetitive by nature but you give me a lot of Early and often early, and often we take ownership of it. We point it out to our children, we play the tape all the way through for them because they're not supposed to be capable of it and they're not and we explain to them how high the stakes are and what can happen and what has happened. We show them things. The other day I was showing Marlene Braden a clip. A family was having an open house showing their house house and some dude went up to their bathroom, went into their medic cabinet and took their medicine and I showed that to my kids. I'm like this is the kind of stuff I'm talking about. Our boys 14, our girls 12. There's nothing they don't understand about that. There's nothing that you're gonna scare them.

Steven Ginsburg: 13:47

Okay, good and what my kids, alive and informed. They can handle it. We've seen what they got on their phones. They can handle some good information. We've got to start our kids early and often. We've got to be candid. We've got to be transparent. We've got to protect them from themselves, got to do our part. I'm a dad and I'm talking to all my moms and dads and you're a dad and I'm I am with you and for you. It is not, you know me, against you or anyone else. I want to be your biggest cheerleader, your biggest fan, your biggest support. But those cautionary tales of transparency, real-time information and vulnerability early and often, that will save our children's lives.

Steve Coughran: 14:25

Yeah, I love it. It's a simplicity in your message that I really appreciate early and often early. Amen Amen, great job brother. Let's go early, and often early. Amen Amen, great job brother.

Steve Coughran: 14:35

Let's go ahead and sign off, but if you're listening to this and you want to learn more about what we're up to at restore detox centers, you could go to our website, restore detox centerscom. Check us out. We have a ton of resources there for you. You can also find other episodes just like this to consume and share with people that you love, but we appreciate you tuning in and I'll turn it back over to you, stephen Steve thank you so much.

Steven Ginsburg: 14:58

Just another remarkable, poignant, relevant talking point. Please know everyone out there. There is no question. We do not want to answer. We want to hear from you, we want to engage. Please understand that we are here with you and for you in all things. Everyone have a safe and sober day.