Yes, prescription painkillers do in fact take more lives per year than two of the hardest illegal drugs in the nation — surpassing both heroin and cocaine in their total related deaths. It all has to do with how these prescription pharmaceuticals work in the brain, and how many individuals around the country are easily acquiring them to feed their deadly habits.
Because after all, who said legal drugs were all that different from illegal drugs in many cases?
Prescription painkillers are known to ‘numb’ the pain, which is achieved by their ability to bind to brain receptors and decrease your body’s ability to process pain signals. As a result, it’s easy to enter into this ‘feel good’ state to the point of serious addiction and even physical dependence. Think similarly to a heroin user who needs to inject the drug multiple times a day in order to reach the ‘high’ that they have ย become accustomed to.
But let’s look beyond the basic science of how painkillers work and into the largest study on the issue of painkiller deaths, which was recently conducted byย McGill University in Canada. An impressing topic that truly does deserve thorough research, researchers from the team tracked the total death stats from both heroin and cocaine, and then compared them to the painkiller death figures that they collected from numerous top sources. Published in theย American Journal of Public Health, some key findings include:
- The United States and Canada are number one and two respectively per capita when it comes to opioid (painkiller) consumption.
- In just 2010, there were over 16,000 deaths resulting from painkiller use within the United States.
- Individuals addicted to and abusing painkillers often take large doses to feel a more ‘euphoric effect.’
- Such large doses can stop breathing, resulting in death.
So how is this still going on? Surely doctors must be taking precautions?
Well, according to theย Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a whopping 12 million individuals were found to be using painkillers without having a valid prescription. Many of these 12 million people are simply taking them to get high. Add onto this statistic that around half of all deaths from painkillers also involve another drug, like alcohol or another pharmaceutical pill, and it’s easy to see that there is a serious problem.
And it’s also easy to see that the statistics are really here to back up the severity of the issue. One of the team researchers on the project,ย Nicholas King, agrees:
“Prescription painkiller overdoses have received a lot of attention in editorials and the popular press, but we wanted to find out what solid evidence is out there.”
Amid the realization that thousands die per year from prescription drugs, it’s easy to see how distorted the ‘drug system’ in the United States truly is. As thousands are arrested and thrown in jail for possession of marijuana, and missionsย are launched to crack down on drugs like cocaine and heroin (which are obviously real dangers as well), the medical establishment seems to turn a blind eye to pharmaceutical deaths that surpass even these notorious hard drug killers.
Did you do ANY research before writing this screed? You seem blissfully unaware of the extent to which the government persecutes doctors who prescribe an amount of pain-killers necessary to relieve the terrible pain that many people live with. You also come off as a sanctimonious know-it-all who would gladly withhold relief if it were in your power, just because you think you know better than people who are actually experiencing debilitating pain. Disgusting.
Do people die of overdoses? Yes, some do. I’d be willing to bet, however, that if you surveyed people who live with chronic pain, they’d state that they’re happy to accept the risk if it means genuine relief. None of them need lecturing by an ignoramus like you.
What did he write that contradicts what you say? You are yelling at a man of straw.
I didn’t read anywhere above that said anything about pain patients who truly need Oxys or Roxy’s and take them as prescribed… the author was reffering to recreational use and abuse. They even said flat out who take the pills in lethal doses to get high. As someone who struggled with addiction myself I’m well aware of the market for these little gems on the street… though i moved on to stronger more potent illect versions of the same thing. Dont confuse what your taking as something with no negative effects… its just as dangerous and addictive even though you get a piece of paper from a doctor. When the scripts dry up people turn to the street. Then move on to heroin when the yuppie version of the same drug becomes too expensive. I know rich kids that shoot dope too.
Sounds like you might have an addiction problem. This is the same argument heard from my father in law who has now traded his family for his pain pills he so desperately needs. After he and his wife both Od’d on painkillers and were put into the hospital on Thanksgiving night (wife on life support). He is still in denial that he has a problem. He needs these pills! His doctor prescribes them! No one understands his pain. He takes way more than prescribed and walks around like a zombie and is worthless….as his wife lies dying from the overdose.
Bravo – Well said.
I suspect that most of us that take pain medicines, who have taken pain meds for years, per doctor’s approval and prescriptions, and who have tried many, many different types of drugs to trick the brain into not recognizing the pain messages, would happily quit taking pain medicines, if only their only legal alternatives were those more politically appealing to the ignoramouses like the mutt that wrote this article. Alternatives that he and his family or friends might like, and who may quite possibly imbibe in themselves would surely include 5pm alcohol binges, or perhaps a joint or bowl or two, or maybe their drug of choice is valium or other psych-drugs that twist your realities. Quite many of these people that whine so regularly about things they know so little about, quite likely grew up taking, and/or perhaps they have been feeding their own kids, sisters and brothers one of those so politically correct ADHA/ADD meds. And I suspect a great many of these same whiny people are the ones that are lined up to take 2 or 3 or more of the government/FDABig Pharma vaccines or pills to kill of one of the other politically satisfying and burgeoning diseases like autism, diabetes, shingles, dimentia, et al. Which remedy would satisfy the people that know nothing of real 24/7/365 pain? There is no appeasing some of these people, so why try? When someone with years of first hand experience with chronic neuropathic and/or physical trauma pain stands up and says they are willing to forgo a little pain relief so their whiny neighbour won’t have to read about pain relief addictions, then and only then will I give a damn or rat what one of these partially informed writers or commenters have to say.
If you don’t know what you are talking about, please don’t write articles suggesting you do. It only shows your ignorance all the more.
It is not the US congress’s place to tell people what they can and cannot put into their body.
I will never understand those people who say that America is a free country when we do not even have control over our own bodies. The most basic of all rights was long ago stripped from us, the right to self determination.
Not to worry, the DEA now routinely harasses, threatens and bullies Pharmacists and Physicians. Cancer patients, people on crutches with blood coming out of their ears, are no longer able to get pain medication via a legal prescription. Believe me, there is MORE than enough regulation.
Here we go again! Another snotnose trying to make it even more difficult for those that need pain relief. He didn’t say one word about acetomenophen, a known killer required to be put in pain meds by our wonderful nannies.