Pain Pills
02/18/2014
According to the CDC, most of the 36,000 drug overdose deaths in the United States in 2008 were related to the abuse of prescription drugs. In 2009 more than 450,000 emergency room visits were contributed to the abuse of prescription pain killers, says the CDC. This article also states that in 2008 there were more than 14,000 pain killer related deaths and that for every 1 death there were 10 treatment admissions for abuse, 32 emergency or doctor visits for abuse or misuse, 130 people who are drug dependent and 825 non medical users (Injury Prevention & Control, 2013) . That is a large amount of non medical users and a large part of those users are our teens. In fact, in 2006 more than two million teens said that they had abused prescription pain killers (Prescription Drugs Statistics, 2009).
The CDC website also says that in 2010 more than 12 million people said they used prescription pain pills in a manner other than their intended use because of the feeling they received. More than 50% of all prescription drugs are obtained by friends or relatives and are usually free (Injury Prevention & Control, 2013). All of these websites point out the fact that women are more likely than men to be prescribed more opiate drugs and are more likely to abuse those prescription drugs. Hopefully, as prescription drug abuse awareness sets in, the amount of pain pills prescribed and obtained by nonmedical users will decrease greatly bringing down the high percentages of overdoses and overdose related deaths.
Works Cited
DEA going after doctors for over prescribing narcotic pain killers. (2011, Novemeber). Retrieved 02 2014, from Prescription Drug Abuse: http://prescription-drug-abuse.com/drug-abuse-articles/dea-going-after-doctors-for-over-prescribing-narcotic-painkillers/
Injury Prevention & Control. (2013, July). Retrieved 02 2014, from CDC: http://www.cdc.gov/homeandrecreationalsafety/rxbrief/
Prescription Drugs Statistics. (2009). Retrieved 02...