The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (5/18, Smith) reports that even “though other families of prescription drugs also are involved in drug abuse, opioids are the biggest problem, both” on the local and national level. Last year, “some 210 million prescriptions were written last year for opioid medications, Nora Volkow, head of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, told CBS ’60 Minutes.'” The problem of prescription medication abuse threatens even society’s smallest members. “In 2009, there were more than 13,000 babies born with neonatal abstinence syndrome after being exposed to opioids in utero, a three-fold increase since 2000, according to an article just published online by the Journal of the American Medical Association.”
Related Links:
— “Abuse of opioid drugs hits all-time high,”Pohla Smith, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, May 17, 2012.