Who would have though t the day would come that deaths from drug overdoses would be higher than those in automobile accidents? This has not happened in more than 100 years. Basically, it hasn’t happened since Henry Ford rolled out the Model-T.

Scary, Huh?

In 2009, the first time in modern history, the number of deaths in the United States due to drug overdoses have surpassed the number of fatalities caused by auto accidents. You can bet that surging prescription drug abuse is a primary reason!

According to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), at least 37,485 people died from a drug overdose in 2009, compared to 36,284 who died in car and truck accidents that same year.

While some of the drug deaths were accidental overdoses, the numbers are being driven by skyrocketing rates of prescription drug abuse, particularly involving powerful painkillers like OxyContin, fentanyl and morphine.

Deaths from automobile accidents have seen a steady decline due to new laws and safety campaigns . But law enforcement, like everyone else, is at a loss to turn around the rising prescription drug addiction and abuse rates.

One Death Every 14 Minutes

It has been estimated that drug abuse causes a death in the U.S. every 14 minutes. However, this is the first time there have been more drug deaths than auto accident fatalities since tracking of drug overdoses began in 1979.

It is clear that two things are needed. First is more drug classes. You cannot have too much drug education. Second, are stronger laws. We need to slow down this trend of drug use and abuse in the US.

Source: http://www.aboutlawsuits.com/drug-overdose-deaths-exceed-auto-accident-deaths-21227/

Pill mill doctors need the book thrown at them. This scourge of society has got to be reined in firmly and know what they are doing is not only criminal, it’s lethal!

A California doctor linked to a string of drug deaths and dubbed the “Candy Man” was arrested by federal agents on charges of trafficking huge quantities of powerful painkillers to addicts and women who provided sexual favors in exchange for the drugs.

Two female patients taken to a hospital emergency room indicated they were among numerous people who used sex to pay for drugs from suspect Julio Gabriel Diaz.

Some patients diverted the pills to the black market or suffered fatal overdoses. One man who died in November was prescribed over 2000 pills in the six weeks before he died.

Is He A Murderer?

Diaz, 63, is accused of supplying OxyContin, Vicodin and Norco and other drugs to addicts with no legitimate need for the powerful narcotics. He was arrested at his Goleta home.

He could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

Court documents say a dozen deaths have been linked to Diaz — over ten overdoses and a patient who died of natural causes with drug abuse as a contributing factor.

Diaz said that even in some cases in which he suspected a patient was abusing drugs, he would continue prescribing so that he could manage what they were taking.

Diaz has not been charged in connection with the deaths, which remain under investigation. A study by an insurance company documented nearly $1,000,000 in claims for prescriptions written by Diaz over a three-year period, the affidavit said.

A Cottage Hospital (in Santa Barbara) psychiatric therapist told investigators that “people referred to Diaz as the ‘Candy Man’ and that people drove from out of town to see him ‘because they knew he was the man to go to for drugs.’”

Shameful behavior by a man trusted to help make people well, not ill!

I have recently been trying to get local high schools to make a drug education class mandatory as part of the high school curriculum.  Drug classes teach not only how dangerous using drugs and alcohol at a young age are, but emphasize the long-term effects that occur due to drug use during adolescence.

Had these two been exposed to a drug class in high school, perhaps a tragedy could have been avoided.

A man in Newton, Iowa has been charged in connection with the Nov. 12 death of Shasta Sapp.

Wyatt Andrew Franklin, 19, of Newton has been charged with involuntary manslaughter (a class D felony) for allegedly supplying and preparing oxymorphone, a drug that Sapp consumed the night she died that authorities allege contributed to her death. 

Authorities found Sapp had consumed alcohol and oxymorphone, a narcotic for pain relief that can cause euphoria, prior to her death. The level of the drug in her system contributed to her death, and authorities allege that Franklin supplied and prepared the oxymorphone that Sapp consumed.

However, the victim’s mother Linda Sapp said she never knew her daughter to drink alcohol or take narcotic pain killers and is skeptical that Sapp would have taken the drugs under her own power.

Franklin has been arrested and placed in the Jasper County Jail and is also facing charges of delivery of a controlled substance (a class C felony) and is in violation of a two-year probation he is currently serving for drug related convictions he received on Sept. 26.

An avoidable tragedy. The loss of a life and at least two or more ruined. There can never be too much education. We must never stop trying to get our children not to use drugs and alcohol.

“Scarface” brought to the big screen the cocaine importation and business in South Florida. Cocaine has long been a problem, almost always, seeming without end, for Floridians in general and Miami specifically.

I cannot remember the last time I heard of some positive news regarding cocaine and its use in Miami. Yet here some is.

According to recent report cocaine use is on the decline in Miami. The soft economy in a state with 10 percent unemployment has made the long-popular drug a "pricey extravagance."

This is not the same coke Al Pacino was peddling as “Scarface” back in the day. The drug war has reduced the purity of cocaine, meaning users pay more and get less of the drug, and drug users are increasingly turning to cheaper prescription drugs that are easier to get.

The number of patients treated in emergency rooms for cocaine overdoses has also fallen recently, and the number of people seeking treatment for cocaine addiction fell to 549 last year from 918 the previous year, a 41 percent decline.

But prescription drug use has been on the rise.  Among 9,000 people who died of drug-related causes statewide in 2010, 6,090 had used benzodiazepines and Oxycodone.

Cocaine ranked fifth in causes of drug deaths, behind crystal methamphetamine and alcohol.

Well – it is nice to get a little good news when it comes to use of such a horrific drug.  Perhaps a good online drug class is in order for everyone to get the numbers even lower.