Prescription drug overdoses claimed the lives of 16,650 Floridians from 2003 to 2009 -- an average of eight deaths a day. It’s been a devastating problem, spread by the silence and misunderstanding over addiction and by the underworld “pill mill” economy, explains Karen H. Perry, Executive Director of NOPE Task Force.
Federal regulators have been putting off the decision about whether to put tighter controls on the painkiller hydrocodone for many years, according to the Associated Press.
California is facing budget cuts that threaten to hamper efforts to fight prescription drug abuse at a time when more people in the state are illegally obtaining prescriptions.
Florida Governor Rick Scott announced Monday that sales of oxycodone are down 17 percent in the first five months of this year, compared with the same period in 2010.
West Virginia, which has the nation’s highest rate of drug overdose deaths, cannot rely on arrests to solve the state’s problem with prescription drug abuse, officials said Thursday.
Using the U.S. Postal Service and commercial carriers to transport contraband is becoming an increasingly popular choice among South Florida drug smugglers.
Cape Cod, a favorite Massachusetts vacation destination, is experiencing a rash of property crimes fueled by drug abuse.
Countries need to be cognizant of the suffering of patients in pain when formulating plans to cut down on prescription drug abuse, according to the new World Health Organization's (WHO) guidelines on balanced drug control policies.
A survey of teenagers finds 22 percent of those taking controlled medications, such as painkillers or stimulants, misused the drugs in the past year.
The director of the University of Vermont’s Health Center last week appeared before the state’s Medical Practice Board to contest allegations that the school health clinic improperly prescribed opioids to students.
A growing number of babies born in Florida are addicted to prescription drugs. CNN reports that the state recorded 635 such births in the first half of 2010.
Vermont officials say prescription drug abuse in the state is becoming a crisis. They are quickly trying to find ways to address the growing problem.
A new study suggests that abuse of prescription opioids may be a first step on the path toward misuse of heroin and other injected drugs.
Ohio, a state hit particularly hard by opioid abuse, is beginning to show early signs of success in fighting the problem, The Columbus Dispatch reports. But many problems remain.
A new study finds that borrowing medication prescribed to someone else is not more common in low-income, urban populations, compared with the general population.
Dr. Carol Boyd, nationally recognized scholar on prescription drug abuse and adolescents, speaks with Join Together about why prescription drug abuse has become such a major problem among teens, why it is different from other adolescent substance abuse issues, and what parents and others can do to help prevent it.
A bill co-sponsored by Senator Chuck Schumer (NY) and Jay Rockefeller (WV) would require doctors to receive training for prescribing opiate-based narcotics. The training would include information about guidelines for safe pain management, and the early warning signs of addiction.
As a new Florida law to shut down “pill mills” takes effect, drug treatment centers in the state are bracing for an influx of new patients who are addicted to prescription opioids. The Sun-Sentinel reports that the new law is expected to greatly increase the number of people who will need treatment for prescription drug abuse.
A study of drug overdose deaths in Florida between 2003 and 2009 has found that prescription medications were involved in 76 percent of cases. During that same period, 34 percent of overdose deaths involved illegal drugs.
Five years after it was launched, Oklahoma’s Prescription Monitoring Program is now being used by three-fourths of the state’s doctors. However, an estimated 100,000 state residents are still addicted to prescription drugs, according to The Oklahoman.
New recommendations published in the Journal of the American Dental Association aim to help dentists reduce prescription drug abuse. Dentists, who prescribe 12 percent of opioids in the United States, can play an important role in minimizing the potential for misuse or abuse, Science Daily reports.
State agents in South Florida began to enforce the state’s new ban on doctors and clinics selling painkillers this week. They seized more than 40,000 pills from pain clinics, the Sun-Sentinel reports.
In an era when prescription drug abuse is on the rise, doctors still don’t have a good way to measure pain objectively, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Fort Campbell is getting ready for new prescribing rules to take effect July 5 that are a result of Army-wide changes designed to cut down on prescription drug abuse.
Detroit has become a major source of prescription painkillers that are sold in other states, according to authorities. Pills originating in Detroit are being sold in states as far away as Alabama and Maine.
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