Published: Feb 19, 2013, 11:07 AM
CHICAGO (AP) — Drug overdose deaths rose for the 11th straight year, federal data show, and most of them were accidents involving addictive painkillers despite growing attention to risks from these medicines. Medication, mostly prescription drugs, was involved in nearly 60 percent of overdose deaths that year, overshadowing deaths from illicit narcotics. Frieden said the data show a need for more prescription drug monitoring programs at the state level, and more laws shutting down "pill mills" — doctor offices and pharmacies that over-prescribe addictive medicines.
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This is most disturbing on a few levels. People I know and in some cases love are a part of this sad statistic. And yet, thousands are sent to prison every year for marijuana possession and cultivation. Still!
I am all for life, liberty, etc., etc. But people are endangering themselves and those around them *and* are enabling big pharma in creating a nation of numbed-out addicts. And it's legal!
When we still lived on the North Coast of California, I had a dear friend who was a family nurse practitioner. She told horror stories about the hoards of patients she was dealing with who were basically junkies, begging for painkillers. Every day. Many of them fine, upstanding members of the community. And the vast majority did not require these drugs physiologically , but had become addicted when they used them legitimately at some point. This friend has seriously considered changing careers because she sees more of these "patients" all the time, and it has really burned her out. Which is sad, because working in medicine was always her goal.
Recently, a friend of my daughter's lost his stepfather and mother within a year's time, due to both of them overdosing on legally prescribed painkillers.
Our government is in cahoots with big pharma, which means big money for all involved parties. I hope that more will see that there needs to be to be greater oversight, regulation, and control over the industry. How the hell did this happen to us?
It isn't as though I do not enjoy an escape from reality as time and life permit. But I learned early-on that needing to be constantly numb was a very real trap. A trap I have watched too many fall into in my lifetime. Instead, I try my best to face the tough times and seek solutions, rather than avoid them. And that means facing dark moments now and then.
Reminds me of a favorite Michael Hedges tune called "Face Yourself"--which I would love to post here, except that I do most all of my blogging by cell phone, and have not figured that part out. Yet.
