Prescription Drugs and America’s War on Drugs

July 31st, 2012  

Here’s a surprising and somewhat alarming statistic that was recently released by the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), an annual survey sponsored by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA):

Of the 36,450 overdose deaths in the United States in 2008

20,044 were from prescription painkillers,

more than all the illicit drugs combined.


This is a brief breakdown on how these drugs were obtained for persons aged 12 or older in 2009-2010 who used pain relievers non-medically in the past 12 months:

  • 55% got the drug from a friend or relative for free
  • 17.3% reported they got the drug from a doctor
  •  4% got pain relievers from a drug dealer or other stranger,
  •  0.4% bought them on the internet.

Among those who reported getting the pain reliever from a friend or relative for free, 79% reported that the friend or relative had obtained the drugs from just one doctor.

For us, here at Home Health Testing, there is no question that there has been a significant up-tick in orders for our OxyContin/OxyCodone urine drug tests which is a first hand indicator that more people are concerned about the abuse of prescription drugs.

The results of this survey also bring to light the momentum for a broader change in domestic drug policy (as opposed to foreign drug policy) that appears to be building in the US.  Just two months ago, at a conference held here in North Carolina a top echelon of law enforcement officials, including Attorney General Roy Cooper, reaffirmed its commitment to curbing prescription drug abuse.

Armed with the disquieting information that prescription drug abuse kills more people each year than heroin and cocaine combined, these officials were unanimous in voicing support for expanding a state wide database to help doctors and investigators pinpoint those bouncing from doctor to doctor obtaining prescriptions in a practice known as doctor shopping.

Currently, only about 28 percent of North Carolina’s 32,000 medical doctors are registered to use the system, said Bill Bronson, director of the state’s drug control unit.