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Wednesday, 10/15/2014 3:33:51 PM

Wednesday, October 15, 2014 3:33:51 PM

Post# of 15274
Pain Killers death rate goes down. Good news? They are moving to Heroin. It's Time for Calmare!

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/10/15/painkiller-deaths-drop-for-the-first-time-since-1999/17262383/

Painkiller deaths drop for first time since 1999
Donna Leinwand Leger, USA TODAY 8:19 a.m. EDT October 15, 2014

Across the US, heroin use has more than doubled in the past decade, and so have overdose deaths. Some states have declared it a full-blown crisis and increased resources to fight the highly-addictive drug. Video provided by AFP Newslook

New federal data show deaths from prescription painkillers have decreased for the first time since 1999, while heroin deaths have surged, suggesting some addicts may have turned to illicit drugs as new federal and state restrictions made prescription narcotics harder to get.

Abuse of prescription opioids, such as the powerful painkiller OxyContin, fueled a surge in overdose deaths, which quadrupled from 4,030 deaths in 1999 to 16,917 deaths in 2011. The numbers are based on mortality data collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In 2012, the latest year available, deaths from prescription painkillers dropped 5% to 16,007, according to CDC data made public Wednesday by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. Deaths from all categories of prescription drugs dropped 3%, the data shows.

USATODAY
Prescription drug deaths drop
"It's some really encouraging news after many years of really grim news," says Michael Botticelli, acting director of the drug control policy office.

Botticelli says the drop gives him hope that some federal, state and local strategies have worked, including crackdowns of doctors who over-prescribe and prescription drug monitoring programs that make it more difficult for drug abusers to get prescriptions from more than one doctor. The number of states with prescription drug monitoring programs has more than doubled, from 20 states in 2006 to 48 states now.

Federal scientists noted signs last year indicating the epidemic had slowed. Deaths from narcotic painkiller poisoning increased about 18% each year from 1999 through 2006, the CDC found. The increases slowed to 3% each year from 2006 to 2011.

While drug abusers may have turned away from prescription drugs, heroin use has surged, leading to a 35% increase in heroin overdose deaths, from 4,397 in 2011 to 5,927 in 2012, the data show. People addicted to prescription narcotics may turn to heroin, which offers a similar high.



Across the US, heroin use has more than doubled in the past decade, and so have overdose deaths. Some states have declared it a full-blown crisis and increased resources to fight the highly-addictive drug. Video provided by AFP Newslook


New federal data show deaths from prescription painkillers have decreased for the first time since 1999, while heroin deaths have surged, suggesting some addicts may have turned to illicit drugs as new federal and state restrictions made prescription narcotics harder to get.

Abuse of prescription opioids, such as the powerful painkiller OxyContin, fueled a surge in overdose deaths, which quadrupled from 4,030 deaths in 1999 to 16,917 deaths in 2011. The numbers are based on mortality data collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In 2012, the latest year available, deaths from prescription painkillers dropped 5% to 16,007, according to CDC data made public Wednesday by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. Deaths from all categories of prescription drugs dropped 3%, the data shows.


Mark Publicker, an addiction medicine specialist in Portland, Maine, and president of the Northern New England Society of Addiction Medicine, says he's seen a striking shift from prescription painkillers to heroin that "is growing every year."

"My patients tell me that as prescription opioids become less available and more expensive, that heroin has rushed into that breach," Publicker says. "It was as if somebody flipped a switch."

Clamping down on one drug doesn't drive people to another, Botticelli says. Fewer than 5% of prescription painkiller abusers move on to heroin, and the proportion of deaths from the drug is much smaller, he says.

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