According to the Centers for Disease Control, almost 15,000 people die from an overdose of prescription painkillers every year. That’s more than the number of cocaine and heroin overdoses put together. What can be done to prevent more deaths from prescription painkiller misuse? A group of engineering students at Brigham Young University came up with [...]
Prescription Drugs
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there were 14,800 prescription painkiller deaths in 2008. In about half of those deaths, the painkiller was used in combination with some other drug such as, alcohol, benzodiazepines and/or cocaine. The CDC also reports that drug overdose death rates from painkillers have tripled since the [...]
Drug abuse in Ohio has been an ongoing problem for many years. Recently, authorities have seen an increase in people using heroin in place of opiate medications such as OxyContin. Even more disturbing is the state reports that 13 year olds are using heroin instead of prescription pain medicine. Why is this epidemic happening in [...]
Vermont is experiencing an opiate epidemic. Public Safety Commissioner Keith Flynn comments, “Opiates are the biggest killer in Vermont. Last year, more people died in Vermont from opiates than from automobile crashes and murders combined.” He also reports that in 2010, 99 people died in Vermont from prescription pain killers and heroin overdoses. As a [...]
A growing number of teenagers are abusing prescription drugs under the pretenses that it is ok if a doctor prescribed them. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) for teens, they report that 7.7% of our youth ages 12-17 were abusing prescription pills in the past year. Many children were obtaining left over [...]
Todd Beesly, an officer in Tecumseh, Oklahoma, relays a story of a woman that was under the influence of Ambien while driving. He describes that she was on her way to pick up her kids from school, but there was a problem; she was driving on the wrong side of the road. Beesly reports that [...]
Oklahoma is the number one state for prescription pain killer abuse currently in the United States. The synergistic effect of opiates with benzodiazipines is not commonly known amongst opiate users and results can be deadly. According to The Bureau of Narcotic and Dangerous Drug Control, in 2010 in Oklahoma there were 153 deaths from hydrocodone, [...]
The medical research world has been exploring chip implants that would dispense medication since the 1990’s. Many medical professionals have concerns about patients being compliant with taking their medications. The chip would regulate medication and ensure that it was being used properly. The chips are programmed to dispense medication either by programmed time or radio [...]
OxyContin and oxycodone are now the most abused drugs on the streets and in the homes. Many of those suffering from the abuse of these opiates innocently began their addiction with a prescription for the drug. However, these patients soon began to seek the drug not for pain, but to feed their addiction. OxyContin has [...]
With prescription drug addiction taking the nation by storm it is essential that prescribing doctors are educated on recognizing addiction.
