Working Together to Combat Prescription Drug Abuse
Sep 16, 2013 12:00 PM ET
Prescription drug abuse has become a national epidemic. The use of controlled substances has increased dramatically, with prescriptions for opioids jumping more than 300 percent between 1999 and 2010. Overdose deaths increased from 4,000 annually to 16,600 during the same period. Such overdoses are now the second leading cause of accidental death in the U.S., and more than 2.4 million people were considered to be opioid abusers in 2010.
Increases in substance abuse treatment hospital admissions, emergency department visits, and overdose deaths linked to prescription drug abuse place enormous burden on communities across the U.S.
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