In The News

Prescription drug abuse skyrocketing

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 16:16:00 -0700

400 percent rise in those admitted for treatment, government study says

WASHINGTON — U.S. officials reported a 400 percent increase over 10 years in the proportion of Americans treated for prescription painkiller abuse and said on Thursday the problem cut across age groups, geography and income.
The dramatic jump was higher than treatment admission rates for methamphetamine abuse, which doubled, and marijuana, which increased by almost half, according to figures from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
They said 9.8 percent of hospital admissions for substance abuse in 2008 involved painkillers, up from 2.2 percent in 1998. The percentage of people admitted to treatment for alcohol dropped by 5 percent and for cocaine dropped by 16 percent over the same period.
"The spikes in prescription drug abuse rates captured by this study are dramatic, pervasive, and deeply disturbing," said Gil Kerlikowske, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

The admissions for treatment for abuse of prescription drugs such as hydrocodone, oxycodone, and morphine cut across differences in education, employment, race, and geography, according to the analysis.

Admission rates also increased across all age groups, though the largest uptick was among people aged 18 to 24. For this age group, 13.7 percent were admitted because of prescription drug abuse in 2008, compared with 1.5 percent in 1998.

"This really has become a true public health problem," said SAMHSA's Peter Delany, who oversaw production of the report. "Those are our employed people, making big decisions about life — Am I going to get married? What am I going to do for a living? What's my next job?"

Fifty-six percent of the patients got their drugs for free from a friend or relative, and another 9 percent purchased them from someone they knew.

"Some of the reason is simply the increased availability," said Thomas McLellan, deputy director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy. He said painkiller prescriptions increased between 700 to 1,000 percent over the 10 years.

Abuse of prescription pain medication was the second most common type of illicit drug use in the United States in 2008, according to SAMHSA. More than 6 million Americans admitted to abusing prescription drugs in the month before they were surveyed, behind 15.2 million who said they used marijuana.

"A lot of young people, especially, don't see these as dangerous because they're medications," said Delany. "It's not safer. It's just a different type of drug."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38263477/ns/health-health_care/

The fight against the epidemic of abuse of prescription drugs

Fri, 9 Jul 2010 19:11:25 -0700

News Article - The fight against the epidemic of abuse of prescription drugs (Rep. Hal Rogers)

Ten years ago, my Kentucky County, the epicenter of the abuse of prescription drugs, namely the diversion of OxyContin addiction. Local hospitals were supplied weekly overdose of pain pills from clinics for only a few blocks. Solutions must be found and raised the alarm at all levels of government to deal with this problem.........

http://www.observenews.com/the-fight-against-the-epidemic-of-abuse-of-prescription-drugs-rep-hal-rogers/649

Opiate deaths up 400% - On average, 27 have died this way each year since '07

Fri, 9 Jul 2010 19:10:04 -0700

BY NATE TAYLOR • NATETAYLOR@COLORADOAN.COM • JUNE 13, 20

Larimer County residents have been dying due to drug overdoses in increasingly larger numbers during the past decade. And since 2007, the most fatal drugs have been prescription opiates, which include many common painkillers.
Dr. Jeremy Dubin, a family practitioner in Loveland and expert on family and addiction medicine, said the face of those hooked on and dying from prescription drugs is changing.
"This is your soccer mom and your 48-year-old lawyer and your 58-year-old HOA member," said Dubin, a doctor at Healing Arts Family Medicine. "This is not your homeless heroin addict that we're talking about."......

http://www.coloradoan.com/article/20100613/NEWS01/6130337/Opiate-deaths-up-400-

Myth Of Child-Resistant Caps

Fri, 9 Jul 2010 07:18:17 -0700

August 25, 2005 5:29 AM

Every seven minutes a child under the age of 5 goes to the Emergency Room because of an unintentional poisoning. Susan Koeppen reports on why parents shouldn't always trust the child safety caps.

Safety Caps Aren't 'Childproof'

Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=795303n&tag=related;photovideo#ixzz0tC9G0zGk

CBS NewsOnline: Calif. Rep. Mary Bono Mack....

Fri, 9 Jul 2010 06:54:12 -0700

CBSNewsOnline | February 12, 2009

Calif. Rep. Mary Bono Mack talks to Maggie Rodriguez about her son's plea for help with prescription drug addiction.

http://www.youtube.com/v/dlrO02TaFX0&hl=en_US&fs=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlrO02TaFX0&feature=channel