New Study Blames Prescription Drugs for Bulk of Fatal Overdoses

Nice ad

I can't believe that within your article where you mention the brand name Oxycontin, if you click on it a pop explains how easy you can get the drug right on line.Ever think of becoming a full time pusher.

Plus ca change

Great article. You fell for it. The pharmaceutical industry is pleased that you have participated in its smoke screen once again. The masters of propaganda continue unmatched. You are simply helping them maintain monopoly.

While these issues of addiction, overdose, habituation, unapproved drugs, etc are real, what makes anyone think they can stop it? Or should stop it, beyond reasonable effort? Neither am I saying that safety and efficacy and accurate labeling are not appropriate FDA activities.

As physicians, we do our best to inform patients. We watch for addictive or inappropriate use. We screen for "doctor shoppers". We advise daily on the inadvisability of allowing oneself to become tolerant to medications. We advise on alternative ways to combat or deal with chronic pain. The issues are far more complex than can be addressed here.

These sanctimonious articles and the equally sanctimonious doctors who too often simplistically echo them fail to grasp fundamentals of human nature. And they have an undertone of somehow "the government", usually the FDA, should, or could, put a stop to it. Can you say "War on drugs?" Talk about a lesson in horribly expensive, abject governmental failure. How about Prohibition? Does anyone ever die from tobacco or alcohol misuse?

Gimme a break. You are not going to stop human nature. Nor should you try. Beyond what I mentioned above. Each misfortune, while sad, maybe even tragic and painful, cannot be prevented by enacting draconian, all-encompassing legislation and enforcement actions. Education and awareness is all that has ever worked.

Education, reasonable quality manufacturing and labeling, fair and open competition, real separation of the FDA from Big Phrma. That will work. But don't hold your breath. There's no money in it for the Power Elite, in this case, Big Pharma.

The large pharmaceutical companies have so completely captured the FDA (and Congress and the public) that they continue to shaft the American public to a degree unmatched in the world, while the public continues to lap up these clever diversionary issues of second and third rank manufacturers who cannot afford the largely superfluous and intentionally complex FDA approval processes. And Big Phrma continues to gouge the American public for ten times what the rest of the world pays for drugs.

doctor give us prescipation and we take them and m,ost us abuse them. why do doctor do this , we donot need to feel no pain , we need pain so we can say thank the lord were still here.

Overuse and fatal overdoses from prescription opioids

This article finally got it right: "the root of this problem lies in the growing number of pain medications written by doctors and filled by pharmacists each day". However, in addition to counseling patients about the risks and dangers of opioids, it would be far better to avoid the nonselective, indiscriminate use of these drugs for less severe types of pain in the first place, especially since there is insufficient scientific evidence for effectiveness [especially over the long-term], and because of the mounting toll of addiction and death which has significantly increased each year since 1999. Longer term use of opioids substantially increases the risk of dependency and addiction which then predisposes to abuse and overdose. Also, although "men 18 to 24 were most likely to obtain pills from relatives or friends to get high", the vast majority of opioid-related deaths occur in age groups over 35, most of whom have intially obtained their drugs directly from legal prescriptions for almost any type of pain.