From USA TODAY:
…More than 5 million people in the USA abuse narcotic painkillers. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention classifies prescription drug abuse as an epidemic. More than 27,000 died from prescription drug overdoses in 2007, a fivefold increase since 1990, which parallels a tenfold increase in the medical use of painkillers such as oxycodone and hydrocodone, the CDC reports.
“The number of overdose deaths involving prescription pain medication is staggering and now exceeds deaths from heroin and cocaine combined,” said Gil Kerlikowske, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. “Just because prescription painkillers aren’t sold out of a piece of tinfoil by a drug dealer lurking in a back alley doesn’t mean they’re not dangerous.”
Kerlikowske said the federal steps to control the epidemic are mindful of the need to protect access to the medications for legitimate patients…
Click here to read the full article.
EDITOR: The big question is how much of the illegal demand for drugs is a result of addiction and how much is because pain sufferers are not able to obtain adequate prescription. Due to differences in metabolisms, one person may require ten times and even a hundred times as much of a pain killer than another without running the risk of addiction.
Physicians are largely untrained concerning pain killers and also fearful of prescribing adequate amounts to patients lest: 1) The amount causes suspicion; 2) A number of new patients who have not been able to obtain sufficient medication from others will flock to their practice, causing even greater suspicion,
Governmental and peer reviewed data concerning Pain Management can be found at DrugWarFacts.org.
