Prescription drugs are now the leading cause of fatalities among all forms of drug overdoses. This is according to 2010 statistics that list prescription drugs as being responsible for close to 60 percent of the total number of deaths. Of these, the two painkillers of OxyContin and Vicodin accounted for three quarters of these overdoses.
For anyone who has gone through accident, injury, or simply trying to manage ongoing pain, dealing with the aftermath of a drug addiction compounds the original issue. And although prescriptions for painkillers have limits on use, it hasn’t been sufficient in preventing these fatalities. One of the problems in dealing with this issue is that because these drugs are prescribed by doctors, there’s often an assumption that there is an implicit kind of safety attached to it that permits a person to take them under any circumstance. What many don’t realize is that these drugs are very dangerous and are classified as opiates, making them similar in this regard to heroin. All opiates are addictive and come with the risk of overdose.
This comes at a time when, for the 11th straight year, deaths attributed to drug overdoses have been on the rise. And although anti-drug efforts are still very much front and center as a social issue with marijuana use on the rise, the real danger of these prescription medications is going largely unnoticed. This lack of awareness could be a factor in the number of overdoses due to the combination of alcohol and opiates. From drugabuse.gov:
Abuse of opioids, alone or with alcohol or other drugs, can depress respiration and lead to death. Unintentional overdose deaths involving prescription opioids have quadrupled since 1999 and now outnumber those from heroin and cocaine combined.
These opiate based addictions can be aided in large part by drug rehab centers that employ Methodone, Suboxone, or Buprenorphine as opiate substitutes. It should be noted however, that being on a program with one of these opiate substitutes doesn’t prevent a person from overdosing on opioids, only that they will suppress the high that is experienced.
