CDC Say Painkillers Kill 40 Americans Per Day

A new CDC report states that prescription painkillers are responsible for killing at least 40 American citizens every single day.  Drugs such as OxyContin (oxycodone) and Vicodin (hydrocodone) were found to kill almost 15,000 Americans every year. Naturalnews.com reports: The numbers from the CDC report show that more people are now killed by opioid prescription drugs than they are by overdoses from both heroin and cocaine combined. These numbers match ones released as part of 2009 study conducted by physicians at St. Michael’s Hospital and the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES) in Toronto, Can., which essentially found the same thing. Since 1999, the number of individuals who take prescription painkillers to get high rather than to legitimately treat pain has tripled. One in 20 US adults also now admits to have abused prescription narcotics, of which the most popularly abused are Vicodin (hydrocodone), OxyContin (oxycodone), Opana (oxymorphone), and methadone, according to the CDC. And how are individuals gaining access to such high amounts of these deadly drugs? It appears that irresponsible doctors, not street dealers, are largely to blame. CDC Director Thomas Frieden, MD, even stated at a recent news teleconference that “the problem is more from doctors than [...]