40 U.S. Deaths a Day From Prescription Painkillers

Every day, 40 Americans die from prescription painkiller abuse, the CDC says.
Overdoses of opioid prescription drugs now kill more people in the U.S. than do overdoses from heroin and cocaine combined. Twelve million Americans say they abused prescription drugs in the last year.

It's not just a statistical blip. Prescription drug abuse -- taking painkillers not for pain, but to get high -- has tripled since 1999. Rogue doctors are a big part of the problem, according to CDC Director Thomas Frieden, MD. Indeed, a California study found that 3% of doctors wrote 62% of painkiller prescriptions.

"This stems from a few irresponsible doctors," Frieden said at a news teleconference. "The problem is more from them than from drug pushers on street corners." As a result, one in 20 U.S. adults admits to having abused prescription narcotics. The drugs most abused, according to the CDC, are "drugs such as Vicodin (hydrocodone), OxyContin (oxycodone), Opana (oxymorphone), and methadone."...