Missouri Injury Attorney Blog

Illegal drugs get a sizable amount of the attention when our society talks about drug problems. However, prescription drugs are an increasingly more lethal habit and risky venture. Furthermore, the misconduct of corporate drug companies when they lie about their drugs effectiveness and hide the adverse side effects only adds to this daunting epidemic. This lawyer thinks our prescription drug problem and its many faces will be our "War on Drugs" in the upcoming decades.

Plaintiff's lawyers nationwide are ready and geared up for the battle to protect consumer rights. Here is some information from a study out of Florida.

Fact: an analysis of autopsies in 2007 released this week by the Florida Medical Examiners Commission found that the rate of deaths caused by prescription drugs was three times the rate of deaths caused by all illegal drugs combined.

Prescription drugs are available because the drug companies market them and doctors prescribe them. The Missouri Injury Attorney Blog believes that these drugs are over prescribed and therefore more drugs are available to the public and available for misuse. Studies suggest that parents of teens need to worry more about their teen's access to a drug cabinet in the home than to a pusher on the corner.

Law enforcement officials are saying the shift toward prescription-drug abuse shows no sign of letting up and that the problem is only getting worse.

“You have health care providers involved, you have doctor shoppers, and then there are crimes like robbing drug shipments,” said a drug intelligence inspector for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Jeff Beasley, which co-sponsored the study. “There is a multitude of ways to get these drugs, and that’s what makes things complicated.”

The report’s findings mirror studies by the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, which has found that roughly seven million Americans are abusing prescription drugs in one form or another. If these projections are accurate, that would be an increase of 80 percent in six years and more than the numbers abusing cocaine, heroin, hallucinogens, Ecstasy and inhalants.

The Florida report analyzed 168,900 deaths in the state. Cocaine, heroin and all methamphetamines caused 989 deaths, it found, while legal opioids — strong painkillers in brand-name drugs like Vicodin and OxyContin — caused 2,328.

Drugs like Valium and Xanax, led to 743 deaths. Alcohol was the most commonly occurring drug appearing in the bodies of 4,179 of the dead and ruled responsible for 466 — fewer than cocaine (843) but more than methamphetamine (25) and marijuana (0). Wow! Who would have thought that!

The study also found deaths related to the opioid oxycodone increased 36 percent, to 1,253.

“The abuse has reached epidemic proportions,” said Lisa McElhaney, a sergeant in the pharmaceutical drug diversion unit of the Broward County Sheriff’s Office. “It’s just explosive.”