More people die in America every year from prescription drug abuse than die from heroin and cocaine combined. That stunning finding comes in a new report Tuesday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC found a fourfold increase in deaths from prescription narcotics over the past decade. Not surprisingly, it coincides with a fourfold increase in the number of prescriptions written for the powerful painkiller
In 2008, the most recent year for which there are statistics, there were 20,044 overdose deaths from prescription drugs. Of those, 14,800 were from narcotic painkillers.“Prescription overdoses are epidemic in the U.S.”, says Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the CDC. Most people who die from prescription drug overdose are taking someone else’s medicines, he says. “Medicines that were left in the medicine cabinet. Medicines that were given to a friend or a relative. Maybe innocently, maybe maliciously.”
Prescription narcotics are being handed out almost like candy by doctors – some of whom are genuinely interested in patient care – others who run so-called “pill mills”, where narcotic prescriptions are traded for cash to feed addictions. The CDC study found that enough narcotics are prescribed every year to medicate each and every person in America every day for a month.
“It’s astonishing”, says Frieden. He adds that many addictions begin innocently, when patients are given narcotics for a minor injury that could be treated with less addictive medication. “When I went to medical school, we were incorrectly assured – don’t worry – if patients have short-term pain, they won’t get hooked. That was completely wrong, and a generation of doctors, patients and families have learned that’s a tragic mistake.”
Death and abuse rates vary widely across the country and don’t necessarily correlate. New Mexico has the highest death rate, followed by West Virginia, Nevada, Utah and Alaska. The highest abuse rate is in Oklahoma, followed by Oregon, Washington state, Rhode Island and Kentucky. The CDC report also found the highest death rates tend to be in either rural or impoverished counties.
Obama doesn’t want the US to get low on prescription drugs. Yesterday, Obama acted to reduce prescription-drug shortages via executive order. You know what drugs there is a shortage of? Adderall and Ritalin. Yep, college kids love to abuse those two drugs. So Obama’s executive order will drive the street price down. Thanks Barry.
Prescription Drug addicts for Obama 2012
Republicans dismissed the president’s executive order as too little, too late. The Republican National Committee said Obama ignored “years of headlines warning about drug shortages” and “finally decide[d] to look like he’s doing something for political expediency.”……..
The new executive order gives federal regulators more power to track drug shortages, quickly approve replacement manufacturing sites and punish price gougers. The administration simultaneously increased staffing at the FDA’s Drug Shortages Program, sent a letter urging drugmakers to voluntarily disclose more potential prescription drug shortages and released two new reports on the underlying causes of shortages and the FDA’s role in preventing them.
Under Obamacare, everything will be tracked, regulated and punished.
Efforts announced Monday “will give us extra time to work with the industry to prevent, reduce or mitigate the shortage,” Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told reporters on a conference call.
“While we can’t control all the factors that cause the shortages — starting with the fact that demand is outpacing supply — there are steps we can take,” she said. “We can work with manufacturers to fix quality issues. We can work with other firms to increase production. And [the new order] will lead to earlier FDA notification of any impending shortages of certain prescription drugs.”
Critics of the executive order said it would not be effective because it does not eliminate artificially low federal reimbursements in certain government health programs.
“President Obama is not responding to the real cause of the problem, which is price controls,” said health economist Devon Herrick of the free-market National Center for Policy Analysis.
Several factors have been blamed for the shortages, including manufacturing decisions, drug industry consolidation, stockpiling, shortages of raw materials and FDA regulations that critics say make the drug approval process slow and cumbersome.
But the administration released new reports Monday blaming industry shortcomings, rather than heavy-handed regulations, for the shortages that affected a record 211 drugs last year — three times more than in 2005.
Of course, it’s never the heavy-handed regulations. According to Obama, it’s always the industry’s fault. The OWS druggies and the drug companies will reap the benefits too.
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