Popping Pain Pills

Americans are popping pain pills at a record pace. Recent statistics from the Drug Enforcement ...  More »

Americans are popping pain pills at a record pace. Recent statistics from the Drug Enforcement Administration show over 200-thousand pounds of painkillers were purchased in 2005. That's enough to give more than 300 milligrams...or one-and-a-half pills...to every person. Federal figures show the amount of hydrocodone sold in North Dakota rose 422-percent from 1997 to 2005. State officials are working on a better way to monitor prescription drugs. They plan on using a 372-thousand-dollar federal grant to set up a database. It will allow doctors and pharmacists to keep up to date about patients' medication. It will also make it easier to spot a forged prescription. (Kevin House, Medcenter One Pharmacist) It just makes all of this easier to track down people who are using these things inappropriately...or getting the medications by deceitful means. Anything that makes the whole process easier...because right now it is quite a manual system to try to track down. And it can take some time to try and find these particular people. Some reasons for the increased use of painkillers include an aging population, marketing campaigns by drug makers and a change in pain management philosophy. House says painkillers like hydrocodone can be very addictive and are often taken illegally. He says the public should be aware of the seriousness of this problem... (Kevin House, MedCenter One Pharmacist) ...especially out to the people who are trying to get these things illicitly. So that they are taught before they get into these practices that they learn that they're going to get in a lot of trouble and they will get caught. The highest sales of hydrocodonemostly sold as Vicodinare in West Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee.  « Less