Six Ways to Maintain Your Sobriety at a Thanksgiving Celebration I first tried to quit drinking on November 11, 1995. By Thanksgiving of that year, I was clean, but I was scared to death of facing a holiday dinner without a drink. I remember standing by the bar in my grandmother’s house, downing Diet Coke […]
Prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs) are valuable tools in mitigating the abuse and diversion of prescription controlled substances from legitimate medical use to illicit use. Drug monitoring programs, the procedures and powers of which can vary significantly from state to state, all share a similar strategy: to require doctors, pharmacists or both to enter all […]
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), on average 100 people die every day in the United States from drug overdoses. Most involve prescription drugs. This is a huge number of preventable deaths that unfortunately affects close friends and family members, including many children. Prescription drug abuse is a major growing public […]
The majority of people who use pain medication do not become addicted, indicating that the drugs themselves are not necessarily the cause of addiction. One becomes addicted to opioids not so much because the drugs are addictive, but because they “work” for the user who has other issues in addition to the physical pain […]
In light of the increasing opioid epidemic, scientists are interested in why people favor one drug over the other. The results of a recent study were published in Pain and found the oxycodone and hydrocodone are the drugs of choice for 75% of opioid addicts. The study was done in cooperation with the Department of […]
There was an important article published recently by the L.A. Times about the dangers of prescription painkillers and the possibility of accidental overdose leading to death. Dying for Relief | A Times InvestigationLegal drugs, deadly outcomes A few statistics to consider: Though less than 5% of the world’s population, the United States uses 80% of […]
Prescription medication or “pharmaceutical” addiction is rising at an alarming rate. In fact, the Los Angeles Times reports that accidental pharmaceutical overdoses now outpace auto accidents as a cause of death. Why is pharmaceutical addiction so insidious? Leaving aside the fact that many prescribed drugs are incredibly addictive, those who take such medications often erroneously […]