Prescription for Overdose--Non-Medical Drug Use Spiraling Out of Hand

Corey Haim's death sadly highlights the ever increasing use of prescription drugs. We are loosing the youngest from the Main Street and the most talented from Beverly Hills. Nobody is immune; neither the celebrities, nor the ordinary people.

Drug overdose is becoming a common occurrence. According to latest Government statistics, over the five-year period, from 2000 to 2005, the accidental deaths from drug overdose have risen from 3,994 to 8,541.

Over the past five decades, the list of celebrities who died from overdose has been growing at an alarming rate, from Marilyn Monroe, Jimi Hendrix and Elvis Presley to Anna Nicole Smith, Heath Ledger and Michael Jackson. And yet, high-profile deaths seem not to be enough to warn of the dangers of prescription drugs.

How many more deaths will it take before we will be able to reverse the trend? The numbers are not encouraging. In the United States alone, the use of prescription drugs is on the rise. At the same time, the use of illicit drugs is in decline. In some European countries, there are similar trends.

Non-medical drug use is spiraling out of hand. In 2008, according to National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), 15.2 million Americans aged 12 and older had taken prescription pain reliever, stimulant, tranquilizer, or sedative non-medically and according to SAMHSA, 6.2 million Americans aged 12 and older were using psychotherapeutic drugs.

NIDA is also reporting that in 2009, nearly 1 in 10 high school seniors admitted using Vicodin non-medically, and 1 in 20 OxyContin and the study of the Partnership for a Drug-Free America and MetLife released at the beginning of March 2010 found that one in five high school students have abused prescription drugs.

Drug pushers are becoming obsolete. More people are abusing prescription drugs than other illicit drugs combined. Vicodin is the most widely abused prescription drug.

Substance abuse and addiction costs are enormous. Health- and crime-related costs as well as loss of productivity amount to more than half a trillion dollars annually in the United States alone.

Every time a celebrity dies, a series of articles all over the web follows, on dangers of drug abuse, on prevention and treatment programs, with various experts offering advice, issuing warnings and appeals. And yet people are still dying.

In the face of the enormous challenge that drug addiction represents, the overdose epidemic will not subside any time soon. Who is to blame? Though there are many factors exacerbating the problem, the relatively easy access to prescription drugs "supply chain" that includes doctors' offices should be subjected to much more scrutiny than it currently is.

No matter how unfair and controversial the assertion that doctors and pharmaceutical companies are partially a problem might seem it has to be further examined. The death toll is way too high.

Source: NIDA, SAMHSA