Presription Painkiller Overdose Epidemic in Buy a Ticket, Take a Ride

We now prescribe enough pain pills in the United States to give every man, woman and child one every four hours, around the clock, for three weeks.

In 17 states, including Ohio, prescription drug overdose has surpassed car accidents as the most frequent cause of untimely death.

Since doctors cannot keep their patients on opiates safe from overdose, government regulations attempt to intervene on this public health crisis. Even the most trustworthy patients struggle to maintain a reliable supply of their drugs by correctly co-coordinating appointments and errands. Under pressure, health care officials attempting to be more cautious often discriminate too harshly: Man denied painkillers for his back, shoots self.

The Black Market is prepared to meet demand, and heroin deaths rise as crackdown on prescription drugs succeeds. In Kentucky, heroin overdoses double. Like many prescription painkillers, especially the dangerous painkillers that are most likely to kill people, heroin is an opiate. However, black market drugs are more unpredictable than prescriptions, and a user is far more likely to make a deadly mistake. Between lowering of prescription drug overdose and rising heroin overdoses, overall, death by overdose increases.

Bill Clinton, the guy who didn’t inhale, has spent some time on raising awareness of this problem. Many deaths are caused not by the opiates alone, but by mixing with other depressants of the central nervous system, primarily alcohol. I liked Clinton’s quote:

“Look, no one thinks having a few beers and an Oxycontin is a good idea, but you also don’t expect to die.”

Other than painkillers, benzos are heavily implicated in drug overdoses. Like opiates, combining with alcohol is a big deal. I actually know someone who died last October on this combo.

Doctors write nearly 50 million prescriptions for Xanax or alprazolam (the cheap, generic equivalent) every year--that's more than one Xanax prescription every second.

There is some good news. Some preventable deaths occur when victims and bystanders hesitate to expose themselves to criminal drug charges, but a growing interest in so called good Samaritan laws exempts from criminal charges those who are caught with illegal drugs because they were seeking medical help. These laws are at risk from political adversity: Families Who Have Lost Loved Ones to Overdose, Legislative Sponsor of the Good Samaritan Emergency Response Act Urge Assembly to Overturn Gov. Christie’s Misguided Veto

Last updated October 12, 2014