Fact Based List:
Seven startling facts about prescription painkillers
Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 03/14/2014 - 10:05
- Forty-five people die every day from opioid prescription painkillers – more deaths than heroin and cocaine overdoses combined
- In 2010, enough prescription painkillers were provided to medicate every American around the clock for an entire month
- More than 70 percent of people who abused prescription pain relievers got the pills from friends or relatives
- The U.S. contains only 4.6 percent of the world’s population but consumes 80 percent of the world’s opioids and 99 percent of the world’s hydrocodone
- While middle-aged men and women have the highest prescription painkiller fatal overdose rates, the rates are increasing most rapidly among women
- Prescription painkillers are gateway drugs to heroin
- Heroin overdose deaths receive significant media attention. But while these deaths increased 45 percent from 2006-2010, prescription painkiller deaths have risen by more than 300 percent since 1999
Source: National Safety Council
Source URL: http://www.nsc.org/Pages/Seven-startling-facts-about-prescri...
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