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The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) contends that up to 20% Americans have illicitly consumed prescription drugs in their lifetime. Even more disturbing, NIDA's Monitoring The Future survey discovered that over 9% of 12th-graders have consumed Vicodin without a valid prescription in the past year alone!
The abuse of prescription drugs is a major source of concern among the medical community, as the issue has consistently been overlooked by the authorities in favor of the more high profile psychoactive drugs such as cocaine, heroin and their derivatives. This is despite the fact that abuse of prescription drugs stands just behind marijuana as the most reported cases of substance abuse in North America. The easy availability of prescription drugs means that the problem is not one that is going away anytime soon, and we look forward to how our candidates intends to tackle the issue.
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Declared 2012 Republican Presidential Candidate
Former Speaker of the House
Newt Gingrich
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Gingrich Position on Prescription Drugs
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• Gingrich thinks that our prescription drug policy needs to be overhauled and modernized.
• He supports setting up a database that people can access, modeled on Travelocity, where they can look up and compare who is selling which drugs for what price. Prices vary a lot from store to store. A single inhaler for asthmatics sells for about $6 at a warehouse club, yet a nearby pharmacy charges $88 for the same thing.
• Newt wants people to be able to see their choices.
More on Gingrich
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Declared 2012 Republican Presidential Candidate
Matt Snyder
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Snyder Position on Prescription Drugs
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Development of pharmaceuticals is a costly and risky affair, and therefore, rightfully, merits great reward. “Generic” alternatives are affordable, but it takes away the incentive from drug companies which make the investments, do the testing, and risk lawsuits only to see their profits dwindle when other companies “copy” their findings and offer the same drug cheaper.
Snyder believes that if the government insists that prescription drugs be made more affordable to poorer citizens, the government should compensate drug companies with tax cuts or other benefits.
More on Snyder
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