Over the last decade, prescription drug abuse and addiction has been steadily rising. During the last year, deaths from prescription drugs topped the totals for heroin and cocaine combined. The director for the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) characterized the abuse as an epidemic. A large portion of this abuse comes from the high people obtain through misuse of the drugs, such as chewing, snorting, and intravenously injecting them.
The National Survey on Drug Use and Health reports that in 2010, 1 in 20 people over the age of 12 used prescription drugs recreationally, which comes to a total of approximately 12 million people. The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) stated that the sale of these powerful narcotics has increased 300% in the last decade. Almost expectedly so, the rates of death and admission for treatment for prescription drug addiction have also increased.
The United States government instituted several measures to help counter-act the spread of prescription drug abuse. State monitoring programs were expanded and the DEA has run several disposal drives, in which unused prescriptions can be safely and easily disposed of – over 300 million tons of unwanted and unneeded prescription drugs have been eliminated. At the same time, the DEA and other government agencies and local law enforcement agencies have been investigating and shutting down so call ‘pill mills’, which are doctors and/or pharmacies that circumvent normal safety measures in providing prescriptions (often illegally) to people.
An administrator with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration (SAMHSA) has been quoted as saying “Almost 5,500 people start to misuse prescription painkillers every day.” Other data highlights include:
• The highest death rates are among those people aged 35-54.
• Overdoses from prescription painkillers destroy as many years of potential life as car accidents, and significantly more than homicide.
• 1 in every 12 people over the age of 12 in Oklahoma have used prescription painkillers recreationally.
• The state of Florida sells 3x more prescription painkillers than the state of Illinois, which has the lowest percentage of sales.
• The higher the rate of sale of prescription painkillers has shown to correlate with more overdoses and deaths.
• According to data from 2008, New Mexico had the highest rates of death from prescription medications with 27 deaths per 100,000 people.
As prescription drug addiction continues to expand in the United States, the need for quality education and rehabilitation increases as well. The Freedom Center in Albion, MI has the experience and ability to help people achieve freedom from prescription addiction. The use of a holistic approach – meaning no drugs are given to help people get off of drugs and alcohol – in combination with a sauna therapy, helps the Freedom Center to attain an extremely high success rate. If a friend or loved one is struggling with prescription painkiller addiction, call the Freedom Center today at 1-877-394-1828 and speak with a certified drug and alcohol counselor, available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, year round.
