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 Alan Mozes
THURSDAY, Nov. 3 (HealthDay News) -- The number of people winding up in the emergency room because of the misuse or abuse of the muscle relaxant carisoprodol has more than doubled, a new federal report warns.

Between 2004 and 2009, such visits went from 15,830 to 31,763, investigators from the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Services Administration (SAMHSA) found.  » More