Category: Prescription Drug Addiction

Across the United States, prescription misuse, abuse and addiction are at record high levels. Over the last decade, pharmaceutical sales for painkillers have doubled. In 2010, pharmacies around the country sold 69 tons of oxycodone (the main ingredient in the opioid painkiller OxyContin and Percocet) [...]

Over the years, doctors and nurses have noticed that opiate-addicted patients have an especially hard time when treated for pain management. Almost nothing will mitigate their pain, even strong narcotic medications. This may be due in part to the fact that their drug of choice [...]

Kentucky legislators will continue debating House Bill 4, which addresses ways to reel in the prescription drug problem faced by the state. The House Speaker Greg Stumbo threw his whole support behind the bill and urged his fellow lawmakers to vote in favor of the [...]

The organization Operation UNITE, located in eastern Kentucky, arranged the very first National Rx Drug Summit to bring together politicians, organizations and professionals who deal with this issue everyday. The event drew many high-ranking political officials, many of whom gave speeches on the prescription drug [...]

Prescription opioid painkillers, which are close relatives of both heroin and morphine, have caused a huge spike in drug overdoses in Oklahoma over the past decade. Law enforcement is now reporting that more people die due to prescription drug overdose than from car accidents each [...]

The National Survey on Drug Use and Health recently found that nearly 360,000 people in the US are currently dependent on heroin and almost two million admit to abuse of prescription pain medications. Since the two drugs are chemically similar (both are from the highly [...]

The issue of opiate addiction in Massachusetts is reaching such dangerous levels that policemen in certain areas of the state have taken to carrying the drug Narcan which reverses the effects of an opiate overdose – currently the most deadly class of prescription meds. Sometimes [...]

No one would guess when they meet Brad DeHaven from Granite Bay, an upscale community in Northern California, the trials he and his family have been through due to his son’s prescription pain medication addiction. Just two years ago, his 6’2” son, Brandon, weighed in [...]

In Washington, the number of people who die due to prescription drug overdose outnumber those who die in car accidents two to one, according to the Spokesman. Spokane County in Washington has one of the highest rates of prescription overdose deaths in the state – [...]

“Pill mills” are thought by many to dot the Florida landscape, and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is taking measures to get the prescription drug problem in the state under control. In an effort to restore order, the DEA has been watching pharmacies and doctors [...]