A Growing Prescription Drug Problem in San Diego County - Drugs Now Deadlier than Autos

UPDATE: January 17, 2012

Prescription Drug Abuse Results in One Death Every 19 Minutes in U.S.

A Growing Prescription Drug Problem in San Diego County, including Carlsbad, Encinitas, Del Mar, La Jolla, Poway and Rancho Penasquitos

Drugs Now Deadlier than Autos

On August 16th, I blogged about “Prescription Drug Abuse and the Military.” Since then, more statistics are being reported about this particular substance abuse problem. According to preliminary data from the Center for Disease Control, more US deaths were related to drugs than to motor vehicles in 2009. These stats are the most recent from the CDC and are considered preliminary because they reflect only 96% of death certificates files.

Fueled by highly addictive prescription pain medications, fatal overdoses have surpassed traffic deaths nationwide according to the Sunday, September 18, 2011 LA Times. This is the first time that drugs have accounted for more fatalities than traffic accidents since 1979, when the government started tracking drug-induced deaths. One of the main causes of the surge in drug related deaths are prescription pain and anxiety drugs which are highly addictive and very dangerous when ingested together or taken with other drugs or alcohol.

There is also a fairly new drug that has been added to the usual list of culprits (OxyContin, Vicodin, Xanax and Soma). This drug is Fentanyl. It can come in the form of a patch or a lollypop and is 100 times more powerful than morphine. These kinds of drugs cause more deaths than heroin and cocaine combined.

Drug-induced deaths are mostly accidental overdoses but also include suicides and fatal diseases caused by these same drugs. The most commonly abused prescription drug, hydrocodone (better known as Vicodin) is also the most highly prescribed drug in America. This pain reliever is prescribed more often than the top cholesterol drug and the top antibiotic.

While most major causes of preventable death have been declining in recent years, drugs are the exception. With that in mind, in April, the White House announced several initiatives to reduce the incidence of prescription drug abuse. One of these initiatives (if implemented) would develop voluntary courses to train physicians on how to safely prescribe pain meds.

It is a wonderful medical breakthrough that we can now effectively treat pain. One unintended consequence (drug addiction) now needs some sort of breakthrough of its own to effectively treat prescription drug abuse.

Obtaining effective Detoxification and long term recovery from the effects of these powerful drugs continues to be a problem. Lasting Recovery can help in identifying solutions to this problem. For more information, contact us at (858) 453-4315.

Judy Saalinger, Ph.D. MFT, CAS

Co-Founder and Executive Director