By DeAnn Komanecky

Do you have a lock on your medicine cabinet?

Maybe you should. Those pain pills prescribed after surgery, or even blood pressure tablets, are ending up in the hands of teens nationwide — and right here at home.

“People still keep their prescriptions in the medicine cabinet. You’d think they’d be more cautious,” said Anisa Grantham, a certified addiction counselor.

While the usual suspects in the abuse world are still around and popular, like marijuana and alcohol, Grantham said prescription and over-the-counter drug abuse is on the rise.  » More

Doctors need access to education and training programs that are free of industry bias.

By Andrew Kolodny; President of Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing and chairman of the department of psychiatry at Maimonides Medical Center in New York City

Doctors have contributed to an epidemic of overdose deaths and addiction by overprescribing opioids. We didn’t do this out of malicious intent. For most of us, it was a desire to treat pain more compassionately that led to overprescribing. To bring this public health crisis under control, doctors must prescribe more cautiously.

In response to an industry-funded campaign, sales for opioids increased exponentially. Doctors were taught that unrealistic fear of addiction was resulting in needless suffering and that opioids would provide long-term relief of chronic pain. Doctors were misinformed.  » More

Poisoning, including from pain medications, overtakes traffic accidents.

By Tim Darragh, Of The Morning Call

Huddled at a table at the Allentown drug rehabilitation center Keenan House, Jeremy Pahula waved a hand to indicate the dozens of men and women like him who were working to stay out of the grip of drugs.

The vast majority of them — Pahula estimated 80 percent — had abused pain medications.

"They're so easy to get," he said.

The widespread availability and abuse of pain medications, particularly opioids, is a major reason why poisonings, largely from pain pills, have for the first time become the leading cause of accidental death in Pennsylvania and the United States.  » More

State Representative Paul Brodeur writes about prescription drug abuse in Massachusetts and how the legislature will aim to prevent it.

By Sara Jacobi
Drug abuse occurs everywhere- regardless of status, social class, age, or lifestyle. It is time we do all that we can to crackdown on drug abuse throughout the Commonwealth.

Over the next few months, my colleagues and I in the Legislature are considering legislation that aims to minimize prescription drug diversion, abuse, and addiction in Massachusetts.

In 2008 the Legislature formed a commission to study opioid abuse. What we concluded is astonishing. Massachusetts has one of the highest rates of opioid abuse in the nation. Here in the Commonwealth, there are more opioid related deaths than there are deaths due to car accidents. Nearly 54% of parents say their kids have easy access to prescription pain medication, and 14% of parents have given prescription pain relievers to their children without consulting a doctor.  Counting tranquilizers and sedatives, more people now experiment with prescription medication than marijuana, cocaine, and heroin combined.  After marijuana, Vicodin and amphetamines are the drugs of choice for high school seniors.  Court fees, jail time, and social services for prescription drug abusers cost Massachusetts taxpayers $4.5 billion every year.  These statistics are simply unacceptable.  » More

By Radley Balko; Senior Writer and Investigative Reporter, The Huffington Post
"I don't want to be doped up all the time," says Mary Maston. "I want to be able to function. I have to be able to function for my kids. But the pain prevents me from doing so."

In 2008, Maston, 37, was diagnosed with Medullary Sponge Kidney, a congenital disorder that causes her to form large, painful kidney stones. She has since had three lithotripsy surgeries, all of which she says were unsuccessful, and has had to be hospitalized to drain the blood from her kidneys. She has also been diagnosed with stage two Chronic Kidney Disease.

For the first few years after her diagnosis, Maston lived in Tennessee. There, she says, "my doctor was pretty good about writing me a prescription for pain medication when I needed one." But in March 2011, Maston and her family moved to Florida to be closer to her husband's family, and her condition worsened. Florida doctors, she says, were much less willing to prescribe the level of medication she needed. In September, the daily pain from her condition forced her to quit her job. She says she's been to the emergency room seven times in the last eighth months, all due to overwhelming pain.  » More

By William H. Freivogel
More college students are arriving on campus reporting serious mental health problems and more students are threatening suicide than in the past. But some college counseling services, such as those at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, are so understaffed that many students have to wait weeks before getting help.

That is one of the findings of a five-month investigation of colleges and universities in four Midwestern states.

Last year, about 40 students at SIUC threatened to commit suicide, counseling officials say. Counselors use a triage system to try to identify those with such urgent mental problems when the students first walk in the door. Those without urgent problems have to wait about three weeks to see a counselor.  » More