As the graph of pharmaceuticals sales rises, so will the graph rise on overdose related deaths – commensurately.

Oxycontin, Dilaudid, Vicodin, Xanax and other drugs like Adderall quite frequently wind up in the wrong hands.  This is no secret and that many people are dying should come of no surprise.

These drugs are sold by “passive pushers.”

Because of the nature of the addiction of these drugs most abusers are going to need some kind of treatment.  Many of them are walking around with a condition just as fatal as stage 4 cancer – they could go at any moment.

Rising rates of prescription-drug overdoses have propelled drug-related fatalities to the top of the accidental-death list in a growing number of states, according to a new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The Associated Press reported Sept. 30 that the CDC said that while automobile crashes remain the top cause of accidental death nationally, drug-related incidents caused more deaths in 16 states — double the number of states in 2003. In 2006, 45,000 Americans died from car crashes, while 39,000 died from drug-related causes (no data is yet available for 2007 or 2008).

http://www.jointogether.org/news/research/summaries/2009/in-some-states-more-die-from.html