"Small sub-culture of presription abusers"? This type of characterization of a large and diverse array of victims of prescription drug abuse in this country reflects a common misunderstanding of a very complex and pervasive problem that is a result of an extensive overreliance on opioids to treat pain patients in this country.

Two years ago we lost our wonderful 18-year-old daughter to an accidental overdose of OxyContin. My daughter had cancer and herself had been on morphine in a hospital after her three surgeries, so I am not opposed to the appropriate use of opioids to treat pain. But all too often, physicians are prescribing these dangerous drugs for people with only moderate pain ailments: indeed, government statistics indicate that most opioid prescriptions are not for severe pain. This overreliance on opioid narcotics, a class of drugs that has been shown to result in dependency and addiction and also reduced effectiveness when relied upon as a long-term treatment, has resulted in availability to the point where our young people have too much access to these dangerous drugs, with often fatal consequences. Free and widely-accessible drugs that are presumed to be safe because they are "FDA-approved" and doctor-prescribed are commonly found in the family medicine cabinet. Most kids who abuse these prescription opioids are normal teenagers, who as we all know tend to make poor decisions at this time of their lives.

The use of dangerous opioid drugs like OxyContin to treat moderate pain is akin to using a hammer and chisel to clip a fingernail. These drugs need to be appropriately restricted to where they are most needed. And people who use them need to be made aware of their true dangers.

The facts are that over the past ten years the production and sale of opioids have increased dramatically in this country. 80 percent of the world’s supply of opioids is consumed in the U.S., including 71 percent of all oxycodone and 99 percent of all hydrocodone. Drug deaths track closely the rapid rise in sales of opioids per capita. In 2005 an estimated 22,400 people died from drug overdoses, a toll largely attributed to opioid analgesics, which now cause more deaths than heroin and cocaine combined.

Leading national experts on drug abuse strongly concur that we are in the throes of a serious epidemic of prescription opioid drug abuse. National Institute on Drug Abuse Director Nora Volkow stated: “Prescription pain medications are driving the upward trend in drug poisoning mortality. The number of deaths involving prescription opioid analgesics increased 160% in just five years, from 1999 – 2004.”

I agree that the discussion of opioids needs balance. Unfortunately to this point the discussion, as well as drug policy in this country, have been entirely controlled by the drug companies, with the result that people continue to die or become addicted in increasing numbers.

Pete J