Opiate pain relievers are a significant factor in overdose deaths and now exceed fatalities from cocaine and heroin combined. In 2008, approximately 15,000 fatalities occurred from prescription drug overdoses. This is 3 times the amount from 10 years ago.
The study from the CDC showed that 12 million Americans have reported using prescription painkillers for non-medical use. Five percent of those in this country over the age of 12 used prescription opiate pain medication for non-medical use in 2010. This was simply to get high.
When Americans use prescription opiates for non-medical use, it costs the health insurance companies over $72 billion a year in direct costs. The amount of opiate painkillers sold in the first decade of the 21st century quadrupled. There were enough amounts sold in 2010 to treat every American adult for a month with standard hydrocodone medication.
Secondary to marijuana, prescription drugs are the second most abused drug category in America. The Office of National Drug Control Policy reports that almost one third of those over the age of 12 who used illicit drugs for the first time started with non-medical usage of prescription drugs. The Department of Defense research has showed that one in 9 active duty personnel misuses prescription drugs.
In the 5 years between 2004 and 2009, emergency department visits due to non-medical prescription painkiller use doubled. If you thought that the older age group was immune to these types of problems, consider that about 2 million adults over the age of 50 have used opiate painkillers non-medically in the past year.
Statistics show that more men than women die of opiate prescription drug overdoses. The highest prescription painkiller overdosing occurs in middle-aged adults with people living in rural counties. The highest incidence of narcotic painkiller use for non-medical reasons occurs in American Indians or Alaska natives. The incidence is double that of the white population and triple that of the black population.
In the United States, sales of prescription aquatics are 3 times higher in the state of Florida then in the state of Illinois. Illinois actually has the lowest rate of narcotic sales of the prescription variety. In line with what she would think, those states who sell more narcotics and medications per person tend to have more fatalities from overdoses.
Admissions to receive substance abuse treatment doubled between 1992 and 2008. Amazingly, the amount of emissions for older individuals abusing prescription drugs increased fourfold over that same time period. These facts are simply amazing and scary. Prescription drug abuse in the United States is an epidemic, and continues to worsen every year.
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