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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
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TUESDAY. OCTOBER 25. 2005
WWW.KANSAN.COM
▼ THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE
PAGE 7A
Persistant pill-popping popularizing
Rush Limbaugh is on drugs. In 2003, the conservative radio show host admitted to having an addiction to pain killers and is now being investigated for illegally purchasing thousands of powerful pain pills. Shocked? No, not really. In this age of pill-popping mania it's hard not to be on drugs.
Becoming a prescription drug dealer wasn't on my agenda last month, but after a series of unfortunate events, I found myself stockpiled with Adderrall, pain pills, stress relievers and muscle relaxants. I had a whole pharmacy in my medicine cabinet and a line of customers ready to spend a few bucks on a few pills.
This scenario isn't all that surprising. We live in a society of medicated zombies. A pill is prescribed for every ailment
BETSY MCLEOD
opinion@kansan.com
from a sprained ankle to post traumatic stress disorder. Three out of four people I know are on some form of anti-depressant, anxiety medication or mood disorder pill, and those who aren't prescribed buy them. Are we a rare breed, those of us who rely on artificial happiness to make everyday, mundane life more bearable? Or are we just faces in a crowd of closet prescription junkies?
Advertisements on TV make us feel like everything could be a sign of a disease or disorder. One commercial asks, "Are you
tired in the morning? You might have a sleep disorder." Then there are the commercials that show people dancing and laughing and having the time of their lives, and at the end the name of a drug flashes across the screen. What is the drug for? No one's really sure, but hey, the people on TV have a good life because of it.
The pharmaceutical industry in the United States spends more than $3 billion a year on drug advertisements, and society wonders why there are so many cases of drug abuse. High school students are now investing their time in "pharming parties," where, instead of getting drunk off of their parents' liquor cabinet, they trade and buy different prescriptions from the medicine cabinet.
There are those among us
who see nothing wrong with buying Adderall and Xanax at $5 a pop, just to relax a little more or study a little harder. With the availability of so many different mood elevators and anti-anxiety pills, it's no wonder it's become an everyday thing to pop a few to get through the day.
The latest National Survey on Drug Use and Health showed that 7.5 million people in the US were current users of prescription drugs non-medically. Approximately 20 percent of the population had admitted to prescription drug abuse in the lifetime. In addition, the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse reported that more than 15 million Americans had abused prescription drugs in the past year.
The ease with which we can get a hold of powerful stimulants and pain relievers is a part in the prescription-addiction problem. In my experience, doctors use very little restraint in prescribing fix-its, as long as the symptoms appear accurate. Online prescriptions are available all over the Internet, and doctor shopping has become our new favorite pastime.
Most people don't do their homework and research what they're buying. Certain mixtures of prescriptions can lead to cardiac arrest or blood clots. Would a death be my responsibility, if I sold meds to someone who didn't know the risks?
Results from the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse showed that the number of people using prescription drugs for nonmedical purposes for the first time increased by 500 percent between the mid-
1980s and 2000 (from 400 thousand to 2 million). Emergency Room visits related to prescription opioid use increased by 123 percent between 1994 and 2001.
How far will it escalate? When will society find another way to escape real life?
Because we live in a college town, it's easy to find others just like us, who drink away the pain and smoke some meaning into life. It's easier to ignore statistics and warning labels if others do as well. This is what we grew up with, having a pill cocktail every morning with our Cheerios. It's become nomal to be medicated.
After all, in the wise words of Weezer. "We are all on drugs."
CRAPTACULAR
McLeod is a Lenexa sophomore in journalism.
Seth Bundy/KANSAN
LETTER THE EDITOR
Secular life has rewards
Like countless philosophers, religious figures and everyday average Joes, Andrew Soukup wonders from where a sense of decency and morality originates.
I do not doubt that many people find indispensable direction through faith in a higher power, even in "faith for faith's sake." I disagree, however, entirely with the sentiment that decency and morality can only be found through faith.
Mr. Soukup asserts, "[Decency and morality] certainly could not have sprung from ... secular humanism." Before attempting to respond to this statement, I would like to establish my belief that decency and morality are ultimately arbitrary; but, I will use these terms in the practical sense.
Now, I would like to use myself as an example to disprove Mr. Soukup's assertion.
My family was one of those families that went to the Presbyterian Church up the street on only Easter and Christmas. But we did not pray together at home.
We never discussed whether we believed or how we believed in God.
- Because church and religion have never been a significant part of my life, I have never classified myself as a religious person.
Thus, while in high school, I labeled myself as "spiritual, but not religious." Looking back on this label, I recognize I had merely created this classification out of fear that others would assume I was an immoral human being.
I even wondered whether they could be right, that because of my lack of religion and spirituality, I would one day lose my sense of moral direction.
So I believed in God because I thought I should. With hindsight, I now see that I was neither religious nor spiritual. And yet I contend that I have as strong a sense of morality as anyone who practices religion.
My parents—neither of who was raised in a religious family
had just as much influence on my decency and morality as any guideline delineated in a religious text. They raised me to be a caring, considerate, intelligent and responsible human being without using religious guidelines.
I challenge Mr. Soukup — and anyone who shares his contention that decency and morality can stem only from faith — to pick me out of a crowd as someone who, by his definition of morality, is immoral or lacks the tools needed to make my own judgment on whether something is
right, wrong, good or bad.
Furthermore, that a lack of belief begets a sense of meaninglessness in life is poorly supported in his article, perhaps because it is entirely unfounded.
Yes, many people derive meaning from their lives through religion. But it does not logically follow that every single non-religious person has no sense of meaning.
I, for one, believe my life to be quite meaningful. My life will be fulfilled through my actions, even if these actions are devoid of religious ties.
I am not attempting to argue whether religion is real or whether religion should even be practiced. In fact, I find myself in agreement with Mr. Soukup that religion can be a foundation for decency and morality, to do great things and to find meaning in life.
The disagreement lies in his belief that none of these things can possibly be the result of atheism or agnosticism.
But because there is no way to prove to Mr. Soukup that I am a decent human being and that I feel my life is meaningful, he just will take my assertions on faith.
- Katherine McCue Overland Park Junior In English.
Austin Caster, editor
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I do not believe where you will find your faith is the question that needs to be asked of people; but rather, I think it might be more appropriate to ask: where is it that they will find their true self?
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A person can be inspired to create great works of art or to do great things by their belief in themselves and in the beauty of other human beings.
For Michelangelo, it may have been his religious beliefs that inspired him to create great works of art, but I assure you that others have created art just as inspiring who were not influenced by their religious beliefs.
EDITORIAL BOARD
Also: The Kansan will not print guess columns that attack another columnist
Does this mean that I am perfect? Of course not. There are times where I have been mean, inconsiderate, rude, cold and many other things, none of which make me a bad human being.
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Everyone has difficulties in their lives that can cause them to lose sight of who they truly are, but that doesn't mean that they are doomed to be bad human beings, or that they are lost forever.
Religion not end-all solution
When I read the article by Andrew Soukup entitled "Benefits of keeping the faith," I couldn't help but voice my opinion on what I thought was his misrepresentation of the general population of universities.
He seems to think that students who don't have a "spiritual home" currently live their lives according to the ideal of what he calls "secular humanism," which is defined in his article as, "...a philosophy holding that anything goes as long as it's not motivated by some sense of obligation to anyone or anything."
All it means is that you choose not to subscribe to any particular spiritual belief.
I read this as saying that those of us who do not choose to embrace some form of spirituality live our lives doing whatever we want, whenever we want, with no regard for other people and their thoughts or feelings.
Deep down, I know that I am a good person, and that my true motivations and intentions are always positive.
♭ Blaggio Ortiz
Olathe senior in psychology.
If this is the case, then it's a severely skewed view of the ideals that I think most students live their lives by.
I am not anti-religious, and I don't believe that religion oppresses people, but rather, for some individuals, it is an avenue that allows them to live their life to the fullest, a fact that I greatly respect.
"I, for one, would rather live in a false dream than a real nightmare." Soukup said.
But, what allows people to
The way I see it, you can live a secular life, still respect other human beings and achieve happiness and fulfillment at the same time.
I take this to mean that it is better to delude yourself into happiness than live in the "nightmare" of secular humanism.
V
This is possible because living a secular life doesn't mean that you believe in nothing, nor does it mean that you feel nothing for other human beings thoughts and feelings.
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Free for All, you and Stephanie Tanner are grounded from the karate tournament... because I was worried about you.
Has anyone ever noticed how many beige, red, black and blue cars in the KU parking lot? It makes me want to go buy something green or fuschia.
So I went to Manhattan this weekend and I ate a cow ball. They're not that bad, they taste like squishy chicken tenders.
You're so vain, you probably think song is about you, don't you?
I hate when people stay in the left lane on highways. Gosh that bugs me!
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