Increasingly, drugs meant to alleviate pain are behind a growing frequency of abuse, diversion and overdose deaths. In cities and towns across the country, including Wyoming, deaths, injuries and crime are increasingly linked to prescription painkillers -- they have become a public-safety hazard.
The Office of National Drug Control Policy warns that "prescription drugs account for the second most commonly abused category of drugs... ahead of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, and other drugs."
The recent release of the Wyoming Prescription Drug Monitoring Program study by the Board of Pharmacy sheds light on the degree to which we rely on potent drugs. The PDMP collected data over six years (2004 to 2009) and tracked prescribing patterns of drugs with a greater likelihood of abuse. They found that
- 4 million prescriptions were filled for 477,515 unique Wyoming persons.
- Almost one-third of the total Wyoming population in each year of the study filled at least one prescription for a scheduled drug (the Controlled Substances Act defines five schedules, or lists, of drugs based on medical use and abuse potential).
- The most prescribed scheduled drugs were opioid analgesics. Opioids alone accounted for more than half of all prescriptions in the PDMP each year.
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According to a National Highway Transportation Safety Administration report, one-third of all drug tests on drivers killed in motor vehicle accidents came back positive for drugs ranging from hallucinogens to prescription painkillers. We're not sure of the exact role of prescription drugs, whether legally used or not, but that is the crux of the problem for our legislative and enforcement agencies. You can't drive with cocaine, but what about prescription drugs?
Prescription drugs are not only a problem for our adults. Pills are becoming the new drug of choice for kids. A recent survey by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration revealed that young people ages 12 and older are abusing prescription drugs at greater rates than cocaine, heroin, hallucinogens and methamphetamine combined. Only marijuana abuse is more common.
And unlike other drugs, which our youth have to seek out, prescription drugs find them. In the same survey, 55 percent of 12- to 17-year-olds said they obtained prescription drugs from a relative or friend for free; 9 percent paid a friend or relative; and 5 percent took drugs from a friend or relative without asking.
Prescription drugs are easy to find for more nefarious people. For instance, one man would go to open house showings specifically to look in the medicine cabinet for drugs to steal - rarely was he disappointed.
For individuals, preparing to fight prescription drug abuse begins with the proper disposal of unfinished prescriptions at drug collection events. In the past, we were told it was best to dispose of medications by flushing them or throwing them away. Now we have a new awareness about protecting health, deterring crime and, to some extent, preserving the environment.
As Americans, we have come to rely heavily on drugs to care for (and entertain) ourselves. Today their pervasiveness extends beyond our medicine and self care and into our lives through their extensive marketing (the tremendous numbers of direct-to-consumer ads in print and on TV), and into our legal system with their misuse.
