In the early 1990’s when I was the clinical instructor for an occupational therapy student, she called the clinic to say she was ill and would not be coming to work for a couple of days. As she ended the phone call she said, “I have to go take my drugs.”

I knew she had a three year old at home. “Who is in the room with you?” I asked.

“My daughter,” she responded. “Why do you ask?”

“Because you just told her that you are taking ‘drugs’. We need to use the word ‘medicine’ when we are taking pills to get better, not the word ‘drugs’. Children don’t know the difference between illicit drugs and medicines. You don’t want her to think her mother is on ‘drugs’.”

“Gosh, no I wouldn’t want that,” the student and mother said. Then loudly she said, “I need to go take my MEDICINE.”

This conversation was before the opioid crises was recognized in this country and medicines for pain relief addicted thousands of people. I still contend that pharmaceutical companies, doctors and others in the medical professions need to distinguish between medications and illicit drugs for the general public.

I do not like to see the words “medicine” or “medications” lost, or dropped from our vocabularies. There are too many children within our voices who will not learn the difference if we lose those words. We seem to have developed a blind spot regarding this issue and I want to bring the use of the word “medicine” back into our conversations and into the advertising we hear in the media.

So the next time you are given medicine for an illness, please call it “medicine” and not refer to those pills as “drugs” no matter what your doctor says.

Bless you all.