Drug Abuse and Alcoholism - Essay Example

"Drug Abuse and Alcoholism" is a good example of a paper on addiction. My previous perspective on drug abuse or alcoholism was that those conditions are for someone who is unaware of the consequence or severity of that condition. In this case, I felt that it is really hard for pharmacists to become drug and substance addicts since they have sufficient knowledge and information about the drug. As such, I thought that the 4 years they stayed in school taking the medical course would have been sufficient time to experience and learn the adverse effects of drug abuse before practicing. However, my perspective on this matter changed after listening to Ms. Simpson’s presentation on SARPH.

During the presentation, she mentioned that there exist some myths that can nurture various forms of impairment. One of them was the myth of immunity. In this case, argued that just because pharmacist knows about the consequences of drug abuse, it does not imply that they are immune to impairment. In addition, she presented a statistic that indicates that a high portion of pharmacists who became addicts were topping their class in the pharmacy school. Against my expectations, pharmacists may require rehabilitation so as to help them withdraw from drug addiction in some parts of their life. Before this information was presented to us, I had a feeling that we pharmacists have a lower risk of becoming impaired as we are equipped with knowledge about the drug and hence we are supposed to educate patients about drugs. Based on this knowledge, pharmacists can and should abstain from becoming impaired. This irony has prompted me to change my conception of the reality of drug abuse among pharmacists and other medical practitioners. As a result, my perception of the matter is completely changed and I now think differently about impairments.

SARAH presentation made me break the misconception of pharmacist having immunity against drug impairment. Just like other people, pharmacists have difficulties dealing with drug abuse influence. The matter is deteriorated by the fact that it is difficult for a professional like a pharmacist to come up in search of rehabilitation services. in addition, the matter is worsened by the fact that pharmacists have access to a large amount of money and hence they will access drugs of all types and nature. In this case, they are at higher risk of succumbing to drug abuse-related complications and hence death is imminent.

Due to the fact that a pharmacist may be at a higher risk of becoming a drug abuser due to easy access and other factors, the lesson that this presentation has delivered to us is imperative. I have really taken the issues raised in this presentation with at most seriousness so as I may never find myself in the situation. In addition, it is important to appreciate the role that SARPH is playing in reversing the adverse effects of drug abuse among medical practitioners. By promoting earlier intervention, SARPH becomes a good tool for making sure that we do not keep on loosing medical experts to drug abuse and subsequent impairment.  

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