Washington 1/23/2012 1:30:00 AM
News / Health & Wellness

The Truth About Painkiller Addiction

Reports are showing that in 2007 2.5 million Americans abused prescription drugs for the first time and this number is compared to the 2.1 million who used marijuana for the first time.  The abuse of prescription drugs is growing and the use of many street drugs is declining.  Teenagers like to use marijuana and now they have tuned to prescription drugs among them is the painkiller.  We may ask why?  A survey was done and it showed that almost 50% of teens believe that taking prescription drugs (painkillers) is much safer than using illegal street drugs.  These drugs are highly potent and mind altering and the teenagers do not know this.  They also are not aware of the fact that they can lead to long term addiction.  There are some people who get them prescribed for pain relief and they eventually fall into the trap of abuse and addiction.  Their addiction from the painkillers surface much later into their treatment of their pain.  It is reported that in 2007 the abuse of a painkiller killed more than 1,000 people.  These people were on Fentanyl and it was found to be 30 to 50 times more powerful than heroin. 


There are some reports lately that are saying that non-prescription pain killers block the benefits of antidepressants.  This information could be just made up by Big Pharma because they are experiencing legal liability for the lethal side effects of their drugs.  Back in May 2000 the BBC News Online gave us a story of a drug similar to Eli Lily’s Prozac that was producing occasional suicidal tendencies.  Eli Lily denied any links of Prozac to suicide.  GlaxoSmithKline coped with lawsuits regarding Paxil.


With all these SSRIs on the market sales have tripled even though they have had leaked information about their side effects.  We know that many people stopped taking SSRIs because they are simply not working or these people were alarmed by the side effects.  It has been revealed that the companies that are doing the clinical trial study reports for Big Pharma have been hiding the side effect from the FDA.  The FDA is still not convinced SSRI side effects are worse than what good they are doing for people.  For most of us the risk outweighs the benefits; most pharmaceuticals are known to have produced over 100,000 deaths annually.


Treatment for prescription drug abuse is becoming more widely available in the United States.  If you need help, call the prescription drug abuse hotline at 1-877-340-3602.


Click here for more prescription drug addiction facts.