The Problem

Nationwide Epidemic

DEATHS

  • Deaths related to prescription painkiller use  increased 313 percent over the past decade.

  • In 2013, over half (almost 52%) of all the drug overdose deaths in the U.S. were related to prescription  drugs.

  • More people die from prescription drug overdoses  than from car accidents or overdoses from common street drugs  such as cocaine or heroin.

ACCESS AND TREATMENT

  • Pharmacists dispense enough prescription painkillers   every year to supply each American with a pill to take  every four hours, around the clock, for a month.

  • Prescription painkiller-related treatment admission  rates increased 400 percent from 2000 to 2010.

  • Admission rates for treatment of prescription drug misuse or excessive use increased every year from   2000 to 2010.

KIDS AND TEENS

  • Children under age six  account for about 40 percent of all exposures  reported to poison centers.

  • About 1-in-5 12th graders report abusing or  improperly using a prescription medicine at least once.

  • 38 percent of teens who have misused prescription medicine took it from a parent’s  medicine cabinet.

  • Almost half of teens who have misused prescription medicine obtained it from a friend.

YOUNG ADULTS

  • 96 percent of young adults who misuse prescription stimulants believe their friends misuse prescription  stimulants as well.

  • 57 percent of young adults who misuse prescription stimulants say the last time they did so, they got the  drug from a friend.

  • 28 percent of young adults who have been legally prescribed stimulants share their medicine with  friends.

  • 52 percent of young adults who have been legally prescribed stimulants say they’ve been pressured by  friends into selling or sharing their medicine.

POLLUTION

  • Pharmaceutical residues have been detected in the drinking water of 24 major metropolitan areas across  the country serving 46 million people.

SOURCES