The war on drugs in America has failed spectacularly. Deaths are on the rise and it's coming from prescription drug abuse. Who is going take on the pharmaceutical industry?
The Los Angeles Times reports that drug deaths now outnumber traffic fatalities in the United States. And experts are pointing to an increase in prescription narcotic overdoses as the main culprit.
The surge in deaths has been driven by the increase in prescription pain and anxiety drugs. They are potent, highly addictive and especially dangerous when combined with one another or with other drugs or alcohol. They also cause more deaths than heroin and cocaine combined.
Significantly, there has been an increase in American doctors being charged with negligence. But it goes further than that. It tells us something about American society.
Peter Guither in DrugwarRant.com blames it on US politics. "Chronic pain is politicized, with too much being under-treated or being pushed under the radar, leaving patients forced to take risky approaches to dealing with pain. Finally, there isn't a coherent national approach to harm reduction. Everything is about abstinence outside of prescribed uses, and so there is very little mass education about the specific dangers of dosage and interaction for off-label/recreational/addictive uses."
Big Pharma will not let that happen.
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