(BLACK PR WIRE/FAMU-TALLAHASSEE) – If you watch television, then there is no way you can miss the countless prescriptive medication commercials that inundate the airwaves. The many happy faces running through fields of grass, cuddling with their mates or playing catch with their dogs, while the narrator fills the heads of listeners with thoughts of a pill that can solve aches, pains, anxiety or depression.

Sounds great, right? Well, here are the facts. Most if not all prescription drugs have a list of extreme side effects that commonly include dependence, suicide, hostility, violence, depression and sometimes death. Since 2006 we have lost several black celebrities such as Gerald Levert, Pimp C and Michael Jackson to an overdose of prescription medication. Those same drugs that appear harmless on commercials can make you feel good, but if abused can kill you just as fast.

Prescription drugs as well as any other drugs trigger neurons in the brain to alter the way a person feels. A substance called dopamine is a neurotransmitter present in regions of the brain that regulate movement, emotion, cognition, motivation and feelings of pleasure.

So a lot of the time, people take drugs because they are unhappy or feel unfulfilled with some aspect of their lives. Instead of dealing with those issues, they choose to suppress them using what they feel are the “safe drugs.” But the fact of the matter is all drugs, prescription or otherwise, can be fatal if abused.