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PRESCRIPTION DRUGS OVERTAKE ILLEGALS AS KILLERS
USA Today - Addiction to prescription painkillers - which kill thousands of Americans a year - has become a largely unrecognized epidemic, experts say. In fact, prescription drugs cause most of the more than 26,000 fatal overdoses each year, says Leonard Paulozzi of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The number of overdose deaths from opioid painkillers - opium-like drugs that include morphine and codeine - more than tripled from 1999 to 2006, to 13,800 deaths that year, according to CDC statistics released Wednesday.
In the past, most overdoses were due to illegal narcotics, such as heroin, with most deaths in big cities. Prescription painkillers have now surpassed heroin and cocaine, however, as the leading cause of fatal overdoses, Paulozzi says. And the rate of fatal overdoses is now about as high in rural areas - 7.8 deaths per 100,000 people - as in cities, where the rate is 7.9 deaths per 100,000 people, according to a paper he published last year in Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety.
"The biggest and fastest-growing part of America's drug problem is prescription drug abuse," says Robert DuPont, a former White House drug czar and a former director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. "The statistics are unmistakable."
About 120,000 Americans a year go to the emergency room after overdosing on opioid painkillers, says Laxmaiah Manchikanti, chief executive officer and board chairman for the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians.
The number of overdose deaths from opioid painkillers - opium-like drugs that include morphine and codeine - more than tripled from 1999 to 2006, to 13,800 deaths that year, according to CDC statistics released Wednesday.
In the past, most overdoses were due to illegal narcotics, such as heroin, with most deaths in big cities. Prescription painkillers have now surpassed heroin and cocaine, however, as the leading cause of fatal overdoses, Paulozzi says. And the rate of fatal overdoses is now about as high in rural areas - 7.8 deaths per 100,000 people - as in cities, where the rate is 7.9 deaths per 100,000 people, according to a paper he published last year in Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety.
"The biggest and fastest-growing part of America's drug problem is prescription drug abuse," says Robert DuPont, a former White House drug czar and a former director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. "The statistics are unmistakable."
About 120,000 Americans a year go to the emergency room after overdosing on opioid painkillers, says Laxmaiah Manchikanti, chief executive officer and board chairman for the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians.
1 Comments:
Actually, I think USA Today is overstating the deaths due to illegal drugs. I haven't seen those numbers in awhile, but the last time I looked, they were nowhere near 25,000 a year. 3,000-5,000 a year is the number I vaguely remember.
Although, if I read the piece carefully, they don't ever really give a number for the illegal drug deaths. Which probably means they are being misleading when they try to suggest that the deaths from illegal drugs comes anywhere near the number of Americans killed by the legal products of the big pharma industry.
Of course, since Big Pharma buys more Congresspeople every year than any crime mob, this won't ever be seriously investigated.
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