By Jason Mullins
Recent headlines concerning a federal raid at an area doctor’s office has prompted one area doctor and his patients to speak out in support of a controversial treatment option for people suffering from addiction to prescription pain medication.

Last week, agents from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services entered a doctor’s office in Gate City, Va., that prescribes Suboxone to treat patients who are addicted to opioid-based drugs, such as oxycodone and hydrocodone. The raid was part of a year-long investigation into the clinic.  » More

By Lloyd I. Sederer, MD; Medical director, New York State Office of Mental Health

Every 14 minutes a person dies of a drug overdose in the United States.
This means more than 35,000 deaths every year, exceeding motor vehicle crashes, homicides and suicides!

The director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), R. Gil Kerlikowske, a former police and justice official, has called the illegal use of prescription drugs, especially narcotic medications in pill form, the nation's "fastest-growing drug problem." What once dominated the world of overdoses in the U.S., namely heroin, has been eclipsed by the prescription painkillers (see below). These drugs are termed opioid analgesics, referring to substances produced from the opium poppy or manufactured synthetically with the same pain killing effects on the human brain (analgesic means lack of pain).  » More

By Maia Szalavitz
Marilee Murphy Odendahl wants you to know a few things about her son, Ian. "He was marvelously funny, loyal, extremely intelligent and a really good observer of human behavior, so much that you wouldn't necessarily like to be the focus of it. He loved music and played guitar. He was my joy." She also wants you to know that Ian Murphy Mitchard died on Sept. 27, 2007, three days after his 28th birthday, of a heroin overdose.

Especially today, Overdose Awareness Day, Murphy Odendahl doesn't want other families to suffer the ways hers has. But each year, many do: more than 28,000 people die every year of overdose, a growing problem.  » More

The Huffington Post; Amanda Chan
The number of deaths from prescription painkillers -- opioids, such as OxyContin, Vicodin and hydrocodone -- in the United States has now surpassed that of skin cancer, alcoholic liver disease and HIV, according to a new study published online in the British Medical Journal.

The deaths may be linked with an increase in doctors prescribing the drugs to patients with chronic pain -- like osteoarthritis -- and not just cancer patients, according to the University of Toronto researchers.  » More

Philadelphia (July 22, 2011)—A new study by researchers at Drexel University’s School of Public Health suggests that abuse of prescription painkillers may be an important gateway to the use of injected drugs such as heroin, among people with a history of using both types of drugs. The study, published in the International Journal of Drug Policy, explores factors surrounding young injection drug users’ initiation into the misuse of opioid drugs. Common factors identified in this group included a family history of drug misuse and receiving prescriptions for opioid drugs in the past. The results support a need for efforts to prevent misuse of prescription drugs, particularly during adolescence. » More