“Go, go, go” were the chants of three teenage boys encouraging their friend to continue to beat a homeless man to death and attack and injure two other homeless men.
This drug-induced episode of violence was triggered by a combination of alcohol and Xanax.
Xanax is a highly addictive depressant, used primarily for short-term relief of mild to moderate anxiety, nervous tension, acute stress and panic attacks.
According to medhelp.org, both alcohol and Xanax are sedative-hypnotics.
By combining the two, these properties may be synergistic, which means the extent of the sedation is multiplied.
This recent trend known as “pharming,” or abusing and or trading prescription drugs, is a sad example of the effects of modern medicine.
Prescription pills have become a societal force that desperately needs to be reckoned with.
Adults and children rely on them for a growing list of afflictions, including anxiety, depression and even shyness.
People see the commercials and take medicine everyday to cure common ills and ailments.
But people sometimes fail to hear the long list of side effects attached to the drug.
There are numerous theories to why “pharming” occurs.
One factor could be the excellent speed-readers they find to sweep through a list of horrifying symptoms that are often just as bad as the illness that was bothering you in the first place.
Because these boys who committed this heinous act were underage and shouldn’t have been drinking, they should be tried as adults.
But the question is, who is going to take the blame for the affects of the prescription drug abuse.
Yewande Addie for the editorial board.