For The First Time Since The US Began Keeping Track, Drug Deaths Outnumber Traffic Fatalities Due To The Prescription Drugs Epidemic

The prescription drug fatality blog has been adapted from an excellent report in the Los Angeles Times by Lisa Girion, Scott Glover and Doug Smith.

According to preliminary data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Drugs exceeded motor vehicle accidents as a cause of death in 2009, killing at least 37,485 people nationwide. This change has been propelled by a significant increase in prescription narcotic overdoses. While most major causes of preventable death are declining, drugs are the exception to the rule. The death toll has doubled in the last decade, now claiming a life every 14 minutes. By contrast, traffic accidents have been dropping for decades because of huge investments in auto safety. The clinical experts at ONE80CENTER wish to know when such investments are going to be made in drug awareness education and prevention.

Prescription Drug Abuse and Addiction

The growing prescription drug problem, which ONE80CENTER experiences with our clients firsthand on a daily basis, should now be characterized as nothing less than an epidemic. This is the first time that drugs have accounted for more fatalities than traffic accidents since the government started tracking drug-induced deaths in 1979. Fueling the increase is the abuse of prescription painkillers and anti-anxiety drugs that are potent, highly addictive and especially dangerous when combined with one another or with other drugs or alcohol.

Among the most commonly abused are OxyContin, Vicodin, Xanax and Percocet. Overdoses from these drugs now add up to far more than both heroin and cocaine combined. It is time for America to realize that the problem is not the drug dealers in the streets, but the prescription bottles in their own medicine cabinets.

The seeds of the problem were planted more than a decade ago by well-meaning efforts by doctors to mitigate suffering. In addition, pharmaceutical companies initiated aggressive sales whenever a new drug came on the market. OxyContin is a perfect example of how such a campaign went terribly wrong. In hindsight, the liberalized prescription of pain drugs could very well have led directly to the problem at hand.

Pharmaceutical Profit Is the Name of the Game

“In some ways, prescription drugs are more dangerous than illicit ones because users don’t have their guard up”, said Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Sgt. Steve Opferman, head of a county task force on prescription drug-related crimes. “People feel they are safer with prescription drugs because you get them from a pharmacy and they are prescribed by a doctor. Younger people believe they are safer because they see their parents taking them. It doesn’t have the same stigma as using street narcotics.”

Public health policies that have improved traffic safety over the years through the use of seat belts, air bags and other measures. Such progress stands in stark contrast to the nation’s record on prescription drugs. Even though more people are driving more miles, traffic fatalities have dropped by more than a third since the early 1970s to 36,284 in 2009. The Centers for Disease Control collects data on all causes of death each year and analyzes them to identify health problems. Drug-induced deaths are mostly accidental overdoses, but also include suicides.

Drug fatalities more than doubled among teens and young adults between 2000 and 2008, years for which more detailed data are available. Deaths more than tripled among people aged 50 to 69. In terms of sheer numbers, the death toll is highest among people in their 40s. Overdose deaths involving prescription painkillers, including OxyContin and Vicodin, and anti-anxiety drugs such as Valium and Xanax more than tripled between 2000 and 2008.

Prescription Drug Overdoses Continue to Increase

The rise in deaths corresponds with doctors prescribing more painkillers and anti-anxiety medications. The number of prescriptions for the strongest pain pills filled at California pharmacies, for instance, increased more than 43% since 2007 and the doses grew by nearly 50%, according to data collected by the state. Those prescriptions provide relief to pain sufferers but also fuel a thriving black market. Prescription drugs are traded on Internet chat rooms that buzz with offers of “vikes,” “percs” and “oxys” for $10 to $80 a pill. An addiction to prescription drugs can be expensive; a heavy OxyContin habit can run twice as much as a heroin addiction, authorities say.

The most commonly abused prescription drug, hydrocodone, also is the most widely prescribed drug in America, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency. Better known as Vicodin, the pain reliever is prescribed more often than the top cholesterol drug and the top antibiotic. “We have an insatiable appetite for this drug — insatiable,” Joseph T. Rannazzisi, a top DEA administrator, told a group of pharmacists at a regulatory meeting in Sacramento.

Abuse of Prescription Drugs on the Streets

In April, the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy announced initiatives aimed at preventing prescription drug abuse. The plans include a series of drug take-back days, modeled after similar programs involving weapons. Another initiative would develop voluntary courses to train physicians on how to safely prescribe pain drugs, a curriculum that is not widely taught in medical schools. Why it is not taught in medical schools is a baffling question.

What is frustrating is that initial attempts to reverse the trend in drug deaths — such as state-run prescription drug-monitoring programs aimed at “doctor-shopping” addicts — do not appear to be working. “What’s really scary is we don’t know a lot about how to reduce prescription deaths,” said Amy S.B. Bohnert, a researcher at the University of Michigan Medical School. As Bohnert explains: “It’s a wonderful medical advancement that we can treat pain, but we haven’t figured out the safety belt yet.” At ONE80CENTER, we recognize the growing problem and fully back all attempts to stop this modern plague that is striking at the heart of our country.