The US Has a Drug Problem

The United States has a drug problem.  No, I don’t mean the recent legalization of marijuana for recreational use in Colorado and Washington.  This one hits much close to home and is much more widespread.  The problem is prescription drug caused “accidental deaths.”  Taking medication has become so second nature here in the United States that most people just consider it normal to be on several different medications.  The problem is that Americans are dying off in record numbers because of the drugs they are taking.  This does not mean illegal prescriptions bought off some guy on the street either… these are legally prescribed and properly taken medications.  How bad is the problem? The CDC reported that in 2009 as many as 37,000 people died from legally taken drug overdoses.  That’s 1 person every 19 minutes all year long.  It is so bad in fact that deaths from properly taken medication is now the leading cause of accidental death in the US.

 

DIABETES

 It is no secret diabetes is exploding in this country.  Recent data suggests the problem is only getting worse too.  Think some companies don’t want to cash in on this?  GlaxoSmithKline, the giant drug producer just agreed to pay a $90 million dollar fine to resolve criminal allegations that its diabetes drug was known to the company to cause a significant increase in heart attack rates.  The charge was that they knew for years that their drug caused the increase in heart attack and did nothing to protect the public.  How much more did the risk of heart attack increase with use of this drug? A whopping 47% according to one study done in hospital and nationally the drug was linked to TENS OF THOUSANDS of heart attacks!

PAIN PILLS

 Of the thousands of deaths in the US annually from prescription medication about 50% involve pain medications.  When you consider that the number of pain pill prescriptions have increased 600% from 1997-2007 (I wonder what it is at now) and that 80% of the world’s pain pills are ingested in the US it’s really no surprise these numbers are growing.  In addition to the problem of people dying there is also the fact that many of these drugs are extremely addictive.  As is common with many recreational drugs, over time a tolerance to the effects of these drugs builds up and soon what was once able to take away chronic pain won’t even reduce it so the person takes more pills.  Sooner or later there is a limit to how much the body can take and it simply stops working, usually when the person is asleep. 

 

THE BOTTOM LINE

 More people are dying from prescription drugs than ever before.  If people are not aware of this problem it won’t change and it is clearly a health hazard for United States citizens.