Prescription Painkiller Deaths More Than Guns Deaths

For the 11th consecutive year, fatal prescription painkiller overdose has increased, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. Three-quarters of the more than 38,000 deaths related to prescription painkillers involved Oxycontin and Vicodin and more than 74 percent of these deaths were accidental. 

Over the past decade fatal prescription painkiller overdose has outnumbered deaths from heroin and cocaine combined. In Southern California, more than half of the deceased had a legal prescription for the painkiller responsible for the overdose.

Every day deaths from drug overdose outnumber gun deaths. In the United States there are approximately 82 gun deaths and 102 drug related deaths every day. The use of Vicodin in the United States has been rising dramatically. The U.S. makes up 5 percent of the world's population but consumes 80 percen of the world's opioids and by some accounts, 99 percent of the world's Vicodin.  Unfortunately Oxycontin and Vicodin are being prescribed by physicians on a regular basis for simple ailments such as a headache. 

The National Institute on Drug Abuse reports that Oxycontin use by high schoolers is up 40 percent in just three years.  Five times as many 12th graders report using Oxycontin than any other drug and the results have been tragic. 

The casualties are piling up every day with one death every 14 minutes yet there have been no newspaper headlines and no public outcry for answers. The senseless shootings at Sandy Hook and Aurora, Colorado have touched us all and I am in no way trying to diminish these tragedies. 

However, it has been estimated you or your children are 6,200 percent more likely to die from prescription painkillers than by a random shooter. Many more of our children are dying from prescription painkillers yet who stands up for them for a change?

I am in Neurosurgery/Spinal Surgery and Pain Management and more than 80 percent of the prescriptions I write every day are for opioids. For the person who has just suffered a spinal fracture or undergone major surgery it is completely understandable the need for these medications on a temporary basis.

But out of the dozen or so patients I might see in a day, 3 or 4 are drug seeking or abusing. I say this not out of suspicion but from actual fact. I am referring to the patients I have done a check and have found them to be less than honest regarding their prescriptions. 

For example, the patient with two last names (example: Smith-Jones). It turns out patient Smith-Jones was using the last name "Smith" at one pharmacy to get 180 tablets of Percocet (six per day) and using the last name "Jones" at another pharmacy to get the exact same prescription she had received from another physician. That's 360 pills per month, 12 Percocet per day.

Or one of my favorites is the patient who came in for a refill. I looked at the patient's chart and noted there was a refill left on the last prescription. When I mentioned this to the patient, the patient informed me they did not get it filled.  After I checked the online DEA website, I discovered the patient not only did fill the prescription, they had received another prescription from another physician’s office.  When I came back and informed the patient of this, the patient sat and stared at me for a minute before finally saying... "Okay, I want to be honest with you now". 

CURES (Controlled Substance Utilization Review and Evaluation System) is an online database used by health care providers in California to help them identify patients who are "doctor shopping". Unfortunately because of budget cuts, this extremely helpful program is currently on life support. It has a budget of $400,000 per year and is being managed by one single person. To update the website properly it will cost $4 million and $1.6 million annually to maintain.  Currently there are only six states using such a program.

I wish this problem could gain the same attention as the gun violence and it's shocking that it doesn't considering there are more deaths than the guns.  Furthermore, it would seem to me the cost of upgrading the program and maintenance could be in part or wholly covered by the drug companies who reap such incredible profits from sales of these drugs. 

When BP took responsibility for the oil spill they spent billions in clean up and marketing to bring tourism back to the gulf. Big tobacco did the same after their major lawsuits. 

Furthermore, with only six states currently using any type of program as with the gun deaths, this is a national problem and there should be a national database that health care providers can log into regardless of where their patient is located.  If I have a new patient coming from Texas, I won't know if they were abusing and I could end up starting the problem back up again. 

I am running for the 50th Congressional District in 2014 and as a health care provider this is a problem that warrants attention and there is a way to address it.  It's just Congress, it's not brain surgery.