Cedarville Magazine
|
17
FOR AS LONG AS I CAN REMEMBER, AUTOMOBILE-RELATED INCIDENTS WERE THE
LEADING CAUSE OF ACCIDENTAL DEATHS IN THE UNITED STATES, OUTPACING
ALL FOLLOWERS BY LEAPS AND BOUNDS. THAT ALL CHANGED IN 2007, WHEN
DEATHS FROM AUTOMOBILE ACCIDENTS WERE SURPASSED, FOR THE FIRST TIME
IN HISTORY, BY DRUG OVERDOSE — PRIMARILY PRESCRIPTION DRUGS (NAMELY
NARCOTIC PAIN KILLERS).
During the most recent decade, many
states, like my home state of Ohio, have
experienced increases in prescription
drug-related deaths by more than 400
percent. In 2010, the number of patient
visits to U.S. emergency rooms involving
the nonmedical use of prescription drugs
was more than 1.3 million. That same year,
more than 38,000 Americans died from
drug overdose (more than 100 each day).
The landscape of drug use and abuse has
rapidly shifted. Whereas the street-drugs-
of-choice were once heroin and cocaine,
more readily available prescription
drugs — especially those used for the
treatment of severe pain, such as morphine,
oxycodone, and hydrocodone — have
become preferred and, thanks to supply
and demand, also more costly. Heroin
has become the “back-up” drug because
prescription drugs are often less expensive
and easier to obtain. Prescription drugs
are also preferred because they are,
theoretically, more “reliable” in terms of
producing the desired effects. While this
is likely true when compared to street
drugs from unknown sources, increased
demand for prescription drugs has resulted
in an underground manufacturing and
distribution market. A large supply of
counterfeit “prescription drugs” is now
being sold on the streets.
To put the nature of this epidemic into
some perspective, present death rates from
prescription drug abuse are more than four
times higher than the “black tar” heroin
epidemic of the 1970s and more than three
times higher than the peak of the crack
cocaine epidemic of the 1990s. The annual
THE EPIDEMIC IN YOUR MEDICINE CHEST
by Jeffrey Lewis
