Every day more than 40 people die in the United States from an overdose of prescription medication. While that statistic may not terrify you, the fact that it has increased almost 400% over the past five years should!
According to a National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH 2010), prescription drug abuse is the fastest growing health problem in the US with about 7 million people regularly using prescription drugs for non-medical purposes (2010 National Survey on Drug Use and Health.)
People are not taking care of the underlying problem. If they have an ache or a pain, they want a pill to take care of it. And there are too many providers out there ready to write a prescription thinking they’re helping and they’re not, and it’s dangerous.
Pill sharing, doctor shopping and Pill Mills are all contributing to this prescription drug abuse epidemic. It is way too easy to get prescription drugs from a friend or family member’s medicine cabinet or shop doctors to get a fix and feed an addiction. And because these drugs are prescribed by a doctor, many get the false impression that prescriptions are safe.
The National Survey on Drug Use and Health reported 1 in 20 people in the US ages 12 and older reported using prescription painkillers non-medically in 2010.
On top of this prescription drug epidemic, many young adults are using designer drugs such as Bath Salts, Dragonfly and Spice that are legal, and can be deadly.
What will stop this epidemic problem of people using illegal pills? Five percent of the population 12 and older taking illegal medications is ludicrous!