The dramatic rise in prescription painkiller abuse in recent years is nothing short of epidemic. And the CDC recently reported that many high-risk opioid users get their painkillers with legal prescriptions from their doctors. In observance of last week’s National Poison Prevention Week (March 16-22), the National Safety Council released a list of seven alarming facts about prescription painkillers that many people might not know, but should:
1. Forty-five people die every day from opioid prescription painkillers. This is more deaths than heroin and cocaine overdoses combined.
2. In 2010, enough painkillers were prescribed to medicate every American, 24 hours a day, for an entire month.
3. More than 70 percent of people who abuse prescription painkillers get the pills from friends or relatives. Only about 5 percent get them from a drug dealer or from the Internet.
4. The U.S. is made up of only 4.6 percent of the world’s population but we consume 80 percent of the world’s opioids and 99 percent of the world’s hydrocodone.
5. While middle-aged men and women have the highest prescription painkiller fatal overdose rates, the rates are increasing most rapidly among women. Overdose death rates in women have increased more than 400 percent since 1999, compared to 265 percent among men. Teen abuse is also climbing. One in eight high school seniors admit to recreationally using prescription painkillers.
6. Prescription painkillers are gateway drugs to heroin. In 10 years of treating patients for substance abuse and addiction, NSC Medical Advisor Dr. Don Teater reports having just one patient whose prescription painkiller addiction began with a heroin addiction. All other patients have first been addicted to painkillers and switched to heroin because it is cheaper.
7. Heroin overdose deaths receive significant media attention. But while these deaths increased 45 percent from 2006-2010, prescription painkiller deaths have risen by more than 300 percent since 1999.
As a result of the prescription painkiller epidemic, heroin is also making a comeback. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), heroin use has risen 75 percent since 2007. This included an 80 percent increase in first-time use among 12 to 17-year-olds since 2002. Experts say this increase is likely linked to prescription painkiller abuse. Young people will become addicted to painkillers then move on to heroin when pills are hard to come by.
