We know the cure to the opioid epidemic

Like many others, Bill suffered lower back pain. He was prescribed hydrocodone and then methadone, and an overdose killed him at age 33. Lance was prescribed opioids for a root canal, after which the Army veteran became addicted. He died in a Texas hotel room of an overdose at age 26. Michael was prescribed hydrocodone for Crohn's Disease when he was 18 and, after almost three years of escalating dosages, he took his own life with a shotgun after being unable to find a treatment program. The stories of Bill, Lance, and Michael are horrifying ones, all of them beginning with a seemingly benign prescription from a doctor. The painful details of these tragedies reveal the depth of the problem. But the scope of the problem has been growing for decades as revealed in autopsies, mortality statistics and epidemiological research. Last November, a study was released saying that white adults, ages 45 to 54, were seeing their death rate rise as a result of a substantial increase in prescription drug overdoses. The New York Times has published two articles in the last week, calling attention to the steady increase in prescription drug overdoses which has raised the death rates for white adults 25 to 34, and showing that drug overdose deaths have jumped in nearly every county in the nation. There are a lot of numbers that can be cited on the issue of overdose deaths. We can talk about death rates going back 15 years, about the racial breakdown and poverty and the geographic tre...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news