Man About Canton: Rx painkillers on the rise

Did you know …

In 2016, more American adults used prescription painkillers than cigarettes, smokeless tobacco, and cigars combined. More than one in three American adults (35 percent) were given painkiller prescriptions by medical providers this past year. The percentage is even higher when you factor in the number of adults who obtained painkillers for misuse via other means; i.e., from friends or dealers. The above report comes from a recent Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration report that highlights the stunning ubiquity of prescription painkillers in modern American life.

Many prescription painkillers are highly habit-forming, and they can be deadly if taken at high doses or in conjunction with other drugs like alcohol or heroin. In recent years, Americans have developed a voracious appetite for painkillers, especially when recovering from invasive surgery or from debilitating illness and/or experience chronic pain. Proper management of prescription painkillers can mean the difference in the lives of pain sufferers and their daily functions.

In the first six months of 2016, 986 opioid-related deaths were recorded in Massachusetts.

According to a recent article in the Boston Globe, Abbott Laboratories marketed OxyContin from 1996 through 2002, a critical period directly following the approval of the drug by the Food and Drug Administration. With Abbott’s help, sales of OxyContin went from $49 million in the first full year to $1.6 billion in 2002. OxyContin is one of the most abused prescription opioids in the country and was responsible for a corresponding wave of addiction and crime up and down the East Coast from Maine to Florida. Opioid abuse has expanded from prescription painkillers to even more potent drugs like heroin and fentanyl, especially over the past few years.

Abbott Laboratories no longer sells pharmaceutical products in the United States, having split off that business into a new company in 2013.

The United States accounts for less than 5 percent of the world’s population, but we consume 80 percent of the world’s opioid supply and 99 percent of its hydrocodone, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

More than 300 million prescriptions were written for pain pills last year in the United States, costing $24 billion, and that’s just for legally prescribed pills.

According to the United States Drug Enforcement Administration, starting in 2008 and every year since, more Americans have died from drug overdoses than from either motor vehicle accidents or homicide.

Eighty percent of heroin users started abusing prescription painkillers first.

Prescription pill abuse is the strongest risk factor for heroin addiction, making a person 40 times more likely to start using heroin.

Approximately 30,000 people died in the United States in 2014 from opioid abuse. The majority, more than 18,000, died from overdoses of prescription pain pills.

The drug fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is as much as 40 times stronger than heroin.

John Parker, a U.S. attorney in Texas, said, “Sadly, and ironically, the way we manage pain in this country is killing us.” An average of 79 people, many of them young, die every day from opioids, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Effective April 1, 2016, the city of Boston banned the use of smokeless tobacco and other tobacco products at professional and amateur sporting venues, including Fenway Park. It also banned smoking in all its city-run parks as well as its public housing units. Other bans on smoking have been in place in Boston for years. In 2003, Boston banned smoking indoors at all workplaces, including bars and restaurants. In 2008, the city outlawed smoking at restaurants and bars with outdoor/patio service. For decades, the MBTA has banned smoking on its buses and rail services.

National Grid’s customers in Massachusetts will see the monthly cost of natural gas rise by about $14 in November if the state approves a price increase the company has proposed. At the opposite end, natural gas customers of Eversource Energy, the utility that serves 300,000 Massachusetts gas customers, will see lower rates for heat, water, and cooking this winter. The decrease, which also must be approved by the state Department of Public Utilities, results from a 6 percent decline in the price that Eversource pays for natural gas.

Drivers on Route 24 will now be able to get real-time travel estimates on the busy roadway from Randolph through Canton to Fall River. MassDOT will add nine real-time traffic information signs along the 30 miles of the Route 24 corridor. The signs will provide travel times to 20 destinations. The Real-Time Traffic Information System is a Bluetooth-based system that provides drivers with up-to-the-minute traffic information regarding how long their commute will be. MassDOT plans to install 137 signs displaying travel times covering over 700 miles of highway statewide by the end of this year.

The Canton Town Club will hold a fundraiser to benefit the Pappas Rehabilitation Hospital for Children (formerly the Massachusetts Hospital School), located on Randolph Street in Canton. The fundraiser will be on Saturday, October 22, from 7 p.m. to midnight. Tickets for the Italian dinner and dance are $35 per person. For more information, call 781-828-9706.

The more you struggle to live, the less you live. Give up the notion that you must be sure of what you are doing. Instead, surrender to what is real within you, for that alone is sure.

That is all for now folks. See you next week.

Joe DeFelice can be reached at manaboutcanton@aol.com.

Short URL: https://www.thecantoncitizen.com/?p=34579

Posted by Joe DeFelice on Oct 21 2016. Filed under Featured Content, Man About Canton, Opinion. Both comments and pings are currently closed.