I remember a scene from The Osbournes where son Jack, recently released from drug rehab, talks about finding a few stray particles of OxyContin dust in his pocket. He immediately consumed them as if his life depended on it. The craving was overwhelming. His description made the feeling of addiction palpable.
Some facts and statistics:
• Physicans and other healthcare professionals abuse legal substances at the same rate as the general public.
• The number of emergency room visits for the abuse of legal, prescription drugs now equals the number of visits for illegal drugs. The number of visits has doubled in just five years.
• Unintentional poisoning from legal drugs is the leading cause of (unintentional) death among people between 35 and 54 years olds.
• Twenty percent of high school students have taken prescription drugs that weren’t prescribed for them. More students have used legal drugs than have used cocaine, methamphetamine, or ecstasy. They attend “pharm” parties. College students use Ritalin and Adderal to improve their grades.
• When celebrities die suddenly and unexpectedly these days, we’re treated to a laundry list of their prescriptions (Michael Jackson, Brittany Murphy, Corey Haim).
There’s no breathalyzer for DUI of legal drugs
And so this story in the Times:
[V]ehicular manslaughter and driving under the influence of drugs [is] an increasingly common offense, law enforcement officials say, at a time when drunken-driving deaths are dropping and when prescriptions for narcotic painkillers, anti-anxiety medications, sleep aids and other powerful drugs are rampant. …
The police … struggle with the challenge of prosecuting someone who was taking valid prescriptions. “How do we balance between people who legitimately need their prescriptions and protecting the public? …. It becomes a very delicate balance.” …
[L]aw enforcement officials say the problem is growing so quickly that states are putting hundreds of police officers through special training to spot signs of drug impairment and clamoring for better technology to detect it. …
[A] former physician slammed his S.U.V. into a Honda Accord in April 2008, killing the pregnant driver and her 10-year-old daughter. Prosecutors said the physician, Mark Benson, had high levels of the sleep aid Ambien in his system, as well as Xanax, an anti-anxiety drug, and oxycodone, an opiate painkiller. Mr. Benson was sentenced to 30 years in prison. …
“Because most people on the jury will also likely be taking prescription drugs for some ailment,” [MD attorney general] Mr. Gansler said, “whether it’s Lipitor or allergy pills or whatever it might be, they might think, ‘I don’t want that to become criminal.’ ”
Ozzy Osbourne, BTW, gets to have his genome sequenced. Researchers hope to discover how he’s managed to survive so many years of drug use.
Related links:
How Big Pharma plans to stay big
Resources:
Photo: The New York Times
Abby Goodnough and Katie Zezima, Drivers on Prescription Drugs Are Hard to Convict, The New York Times, July 24, 2010
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