US Facing Epidemic Abuse and Deaths from Prescription Pain Killers

Pain Killers

http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/14477295/us-aims-at-its-deadliest-dru.... “MIAMI (AP) - The White House drug czar wants doctors, states and law enforcement working harder to stop America's deadliest drug-abuse problem: highly addictive prescription painkillers. They are killing more people than heroin and cocaine combined as they foster a slew of illegal "pill mill" clinics centered in Florida.“The federal government on Tuesday announced its first-ever comprehensive strategy to combat the abuse of Oxycontin and other opioids, aiming to cut misuse by 15 percent in five years. That goal may sound modest, but it would represent a dramatic turnaround: Emergency room visits from prescription drug overdoses doubled from 2004 to 2009, when they topped 1.2 million, according to federal health officials.“ This is the other side of the coin for those who would ban or restrict the use of cannabis for chronic pain. Besides the diversion aspect, which is significant, even legitimate pain patients face a whole host of potential complications from pain killers. In many states, physicians untrained in Pain Medicine have taken to prescribing Methadone as a pain killer, because of the cost savings ( methadone is very inexpensive) and this has led to an epidemic of deaths from Methadone overdoses, simply because the doctors themselves are prescribng too much of it too rapidly. There are no documented deaths from cannabis overdosage in the medical or lay literature. Just this fact makes it safer than nearly every regimen given to a chronic pain patient in the traditional practice.