Prescription opioid overdose deaths reach epidemic proportions

Approximately 27,500 people died from unintentional drug overdoses in 2007, driven to a large extent by prescription opioid overdoses...

Unintentional overdose deaths in teens and adults have reached epidemic proportions in the U.S. In some 20 states in 2007 the number of unintentional drug poisoning deaths exceeded either motor vehicle crashes or suicides, two of the leading causes of injury death. Prescription opioid pain medications are driving this overdose epidemic. Opioid pain medications were also involved in about 36 percent of all poisoning suicides in the U.S. in 2007.

In a commentary article released ahead of the print version in the April 19, 2011 online issue of the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, physicians affiliated with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine and Duke University Medical Center cite data noting that in 2007 unintentional deaths due to prescription opioid pain killers were involved in more overdose deaths than heroin and cocaine combined.

Scary figures, until you consider tobacco kills almost 500,000 in the US each year, and alcohol kills around 100,000. But those are usually slow, expensive deaths, not the sudden overdoses you get with prescription narcotics. Notice how when billion dollar industries kill hundreds of people each day with their products it becomes a statistical news story. Yet when one kid has a bad trip on Salvia it becomes the scare story of the week, and must be banned immediately. Double standard?