Nationwide, pharmacies received and ultimately dispensed the equivalent of 69 tons of pure oxycodone and 42 tons of pure hydrocodone in 2010, the last year for which statistics are available. That’s enough to give 40 5-mg Percocets and 24 5-mg Vicodins to every person in the United States. The DEA data records shipments from distributors to pharmacies, hospitals, practitioners and teaching institutions. The drugs are eventually dispensed and sold to patients, but the DEA does not keep track of how much individual patients receive.
The increase is partly due to the aging U.S. population with pain issues and a greater willingness by doctors to treat pain, said Gregory Bunt, medical director at New York’s Daytop Village chain of drug treatment clinics.
Sales are also being driven by addiction, as users become physically dependent on painkillers and begin “doctor shopping” to keep the prescriptions coming, he said.
“Prescription medications can provide enormous health and quality-of-life benefits to patients,” Gil Kerlikowske, the U.S. drug czar, told Congress in March. “However, we all now recognize that these drugs can be just as dangerous and deadly as illicit substances when misused or abused.”
Opioids like hydrocodone and oxycodone can release intense feelings of well-being. Some abusers swallow the pills; others crush them, then smoke, snort or inject the powder.
Nice of you to join us! It is an EPIDEMIC of wide proportion!!! It is the noitans worst enemy! Get rid of the Dr. That are handing them out like pez candy and just maybe #1 people will hit off their lazy ass to work and stop taking disability and welfare. (stop playing their game!) # 2 save lives, but we need caring resources for long term help! (these people can no longer function in society) It is not just the surface we are looking at. I know my niece has been handed drugs for 10 years from doctors! They know she is an addict .rotten teeth, no brain! I have friends whom families have been ruined because the resources have taken every penny. Just saying .it is a terrible, terrible disease! Please help!