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Prescription drug use epidemic linked to violent crime

September 12, 2012

Police said a recent string of assaults in Grover Beach may be linked to an increase in prescription drug use. [KSBY]

In all three cases, victims were beaten by their alleged assailants. In one case, the suspect demanded a man hand over his prescription drugs. After the elderly man refused, the suspect beat him.

Prescription drug abuse in San Luis Obispo County has skyrocketed to almost twice the state average. County public health officials said the abuse of prescription drugs is the nation’s fastest growing drug problem.

In San Luis Obispo County, 44 people died from accidental drug overdoses last year. Of those, 27 were attributed to pain killers.

 


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The wonders of big pharma:


Arkansas: Rice farmers sue drug company and poultry industry for contaminating their crops with arsenic. [The farmers say that the drug company, Pfizer, manufactures an arsenic additive for chicken feed and that the resulting chicken litter is widely used as fertilizer in rice fields. This may solve the mystery of where the arsenic came from that recently was discovered in almost all rice sold in the US.] Mercola 2012 Oct 25


http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/10/25/rice-farmers-sue-drug-companies.aspx?e_cid=20121025_DNL_art_1


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AKA as the new drug dealer ——–PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES, coupled with their handy dandy docs that are willing to OVER MEDICATE. Doctors are no longer doctors. Just write a prescription to cover the problem. Too lazy to actually address and look for solutions.


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This is nothing new.


Big pharma are the biggest drug dealers around, and the doctors are the pimps.


You KNOW that most docs are addicts, right ?

…along with most of their family ?


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There is some truth to what you say but your generalization is way too broad as far as doctors go. Some docs may be”too lazy” but many more are too busy to give enough attention to problems so that pain killers and other abused drugs are not over-prescribed. Maybe if our medical system was a bit more affordable, people would get better treatment at the primary doctor level. As it is now, too much pressure exists to squeeze every minute for $.


The opposite problem also exists: People who really do need high doses of pain killers can’t always get them because doctors are too afraid of being investigated for excessive prescriptions. Perhaps we need to rethink the way we deal with the legal aspects of the system as well. (Yeah, I know, when pigs start flying.)


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Kudos on a good, accurate, story on a little known drug abuse problem: nationwide!

During the late ’90’s. the Joint Commission on Accredidation of Hospitals etc. made a finding that pain

management in America’s health facilities was being way under treated thereby causing unnecassary

consumer distress. The health service delivery system jumped at the easiest solution on the shelf: MORE MEDS!! Patients were routinely asked to rate their pain level on a 1-10 scale. Any rating deemed too high (clinical judgement) got medicated, and medicated and medicated. Patients were walking out of hospitals, clinics and M.D. offices with all kinds of analgesic scrips (all of which are either opiate or opioid based). Older people tend to be the largest consumers of these meds along with their buddies known as ‘benzos;” which is short for benzodiazapines (major tranqs” Xanax, Valium , etc. etc.) Both of these classes of meds are Scheduled by the DEA, which means they have abuse and addiction potential. Grandma’s hip didn’t just “break’ because it was fragile; grandma was probably zonked on one or more of these meds.

So the result is these meds are available in just about everybod’ys bathroom, This is where much of the supply of ‘goodies” that wind up for sale (Vicoden -$20 a pill for example) at Farmer’s Market, Sunken Gardens, etc.. They provide a good trip, no unknown cutting agents to worry about, get ’em from your friends and relatives and avoid connections and undercover cops. Hell of a deal except for the cost.

One downside is that few can continue to afford the nice, store bought pain killers for long. What to do, your hooked and gotta have a hit. Enter your local friendly heroin dealer. It’s an opiate for sure and much cheaper than the good stuff. Your off and running now.


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I don’t know where these folks (over medicated) find their doctors…I live with chronic pain daily, but I prefer to work with the pain rather than be an “over medicated zombie”…I have an “acquaintance” who is so zoned out on meds that she’s incoherant ALL THE TIME…She wonders why I will not go anywhere with her…hmmmm


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When my husband was hospitalized for a very painful condition, the medical staff was so surprised to hear that he refused some of the heavier painkillers. The doctor was grinning when she explained that she could tell that we were not habitual drug users because we both stated that we didn’t tolerate them very well.


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