Increase use in prescription drugs raises concern

Officials say in the past decade, there’s been a three-fold increase in addictions to prescription drugs. Marv Fangeman, the manager of a drug treatment program in Des Moines, says the increase is directly linked to the number of prescriptions and refills written for patients that has increased in the last ten years.Fangeman says doctors need to be more wary when handing out ‘scripts.Fangeman says doctors aren’t alone in fostering addictions, he says pharmacists need to speak up when a drug may be addictive.Fangeman says anxiety medications are the most addictive drugs. In 1988, half-a-million people were abusing prescription drugs. Ten years later, over one-and-a-half million Americans were addicted to prescription medications.