In the United States, the nonmedical use of prescription drugs is the second most
common illicit drug use, behind only marijuana.
1
According to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),
more than 36,000 people died as a result of a drug poisoning in 2008, representing
an increase of 138% when compared to the approximately 15,000 deaths in 1998.
2
Of these deaths, more than 40% involved prescription opioids.
2
The number of deaths from prescription overdose is believed to have surpassed the
combined number of deaths from cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine.
3
The Report by the Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) on the estimated number of emergency
department (ED) visits related to drug abuse further illustrates the problem.
4
In 2009, there were more than 1,000,000 drug-related ED visits, an increase of 101%
as compared to 2004. From 2004 to 2009, the estimated ED visits involving the nonmedical
use of (1) prescription opioids increased by 141% (from 172,700 to 416,500 visits);
(2) benzodiazepines increased by 118% (from 143,500 to 312,900 visits); (3) stimulants
such as amphetamine-dextroamphetamine and methylphenidate increased by 187% (from
4700 to 13,600 visits).
4
In addition to mortality and morbidity, this has also resulted in loss of productivity.
Furthermore, prescription drug diversion poses a public safety threat. According to
the National Drug Treatment Assessment, more state and law enforcement agencies associated
property crime and violent crime with prescription diversion.
3
The estimated cost of illicit drug use was estimated to be more than $193 billion
in 2007.
3
This includes the cost of crimes, health care, and productivity loss.
3
KEY POINTS
- •In the United States, diversion of prescription drugs to nonmedical use has grown to epidemic proportions, with only cannabis exceeding them among categories of illicit drug use.
- •The three most widely diverted classes of prescription drugs currently are the opioids, central nervous system (CNS) depressants (eg, benzodiazepines), and CNS stimulants (eg, amphetamine, dextroamphetamine, and methylphenidate).
- •In the first decade of the 21st century, U.S. retail sales of opioid drugs more than doubled, with prescriptions increasing from 76 to 210 million.
- •Similar increases were seen during this period among the commonly prescribed benzodiazepine tranquilizers including alprazolam (Xanax), diazepam (Valium), lorazepam (Ativan), clonazepam (Klonopin), and temazepam (Restoril).
- •Stimulants were likewise prescribed in record numbers for treatment of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, including amphetamine/dextroamphetamine (Adderall, Dexedrine) and methylphenidate (Concerta, Ritalin).
Keywords
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Article info
Footnotes
The author has nothing to disclose.
Identification
Copyright
© 2012 Elsevier Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
