Impact of prescription Drug Abuse in prisons in Florida

Impact of prescription Drug Abuse in prisons in Florida
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Prescription drug abuse is common among inmates in prisons where prescription drugs addicts engage in heinous strategies such as lying to doctors or threatening them to access prescription drugs such as painkillers. They also steal medication from their fellow inmates or bully them to surrender their medication (Edwards, 2012). Spot checks in prisons are a very important way to keep passing of drugs among prisoners at bay. Prison staff requires engaging in frequent impromptu checks in prison cells to monitor prisoners engaging in prescription drug abuse as an intervention that discourages possession of illegal use of prescription drugs (Gunter, Kurtz, Bakken, & O'Connell, 2012).
Florida has gained a reputation for easy access to pain pills, and it attracts prescription drug addicts form different parts of the USA. For instance, the state prescribes ten times more oxycodone as compared to other states and it is reported that seven people die each day from prescription drug abuse in Florida (The Way Out, 2013). Overdose of prescription drugs is responsible for more deaths in Florida than use of illicit narcotics such as Cocaine or Heroin. Estimates indicate that out of the one hundred thousand prisoners in Florida, only one in every ten of them is in prison for drug abuse related offenses. Inmates in Florida state department of corrections are reported to abusing gabapentin either pulverized or through the nasal cavity. Such inmates derive a high feeling and the practice is common among cocaine addicts (Paggio, 2013). This problem is very common among the black and Hispanic prisoners in Hillsborough Florida county prisons (Ebsary, 2011). Prescription drug smuggling is very common among the two minority groups living and imprisoned populations in the Tampa area of Hillsborough county Florida as indicated by Tampa Tribune (The Way Out, 2013).
Inmates arrested and serving jail terms for prescription drug abuse charges in Hillsborough county jails often revert to dealing prescription drugs within the confines of the prison. A survey in Hillsborough county jails indicated that 31 % of inmates ingest the pills with the first week of their prison stay and more than half report that ocycodone, oxycontin and roxicodone are their favorites (Reyes, 2011). The abuse is most common among the black and Hispanic prisoners and more than forty percent of inmates with drug abuse problems abuse OxyContin, which has the potential to cause many deaths. Inmates with psychiatric disabilities complicate diagnosis of personality disorders and malingering owing to abuse of the drug. This compromises inmates’ safety and increases the economic burden incurred through treatment (Paggio, 2013).
There is a need to increase treatment for the prisoners because addiction has long-term repercussions for the taxpayer. This is because such offenders relapse to their drug habit and are imprisoned repeatedly which increases the cost of treatment and the cost running prisons, which are funded through taxpayers’ money (Addiction Treatment Strategies, 2013). These drug offenders also contribute to increased crime rates, child abuse and neglect, and they also drain healthcare resources because they might require medication during treatment.
There are different forms of interventions that are provided by the government although these forms of treatment must be complemented through more elaborate interventions. One of the most basic program is detoxification which has very adverse symptoms such as exercise sweating, nausea and loss of appetite (Reyes, 2011). This may be followed by other government interventions such as the Federal Bureau of Prisons drug education course offered to all inmates with a history of prescription drugs abuse. This course runs for a period of 15 hours and inmates are encouraged to pursue it to the end through ways as retaining their eligibility for federal prison work assignment. Non-residential inmates requiring drug treatme...