What's killing more Americans -- heroin, cocaine, or prescription painkillers?

Do you know anyone who poo poos the use of marijuana because it's "illegal" and instead takes pain pills all day long? Do you, as I, wonder why the government has such bans while allowing the synthetics to kill our citizens? (I'll give you a hint... it starts with M and ends in Y)

A few years ago, I was astounded at a policy at a Catholic hospital mom stayed in while battling cancer. They literally locked up her prescription for Marinol, synthetic marijuana (not even the real thing!) that helped with her pain, nausea and sleeplessness. Instead, they prescribed her a hardcore narcotic, a pill for nausea and one for sleeping which causes hallucinations.

Painkillers are real killers

by William C. Douglass, MD

Pop quiz time: What's killing more Americans -- heroin, cocaine, or prescription painkillers?

Since you're a reader of the Daily Dose, I'm sure the answer is obvious. It's the painkillers, of course. A look at the numbers from 2007 showed that these perfectly legal meds killed more people in 2007 than heroin and cocaine COMBINED... and that's not even counting suicides!

Researchers from UNC-Chapel Hill School of Medicine and the Duke University Medical Center say these meds made up the bulk of the 27,500 unintentional drug overdose deaths that year.

Of course, they make up a pretty good bulk of the intentional deaths as well. Opioids alone were responsible for 36 percent of all suicide attempts in '07, according to the commentary in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.

In 20 states, the number of unintentional prescription drug overdose deaths actually exceeded motor vehicle deaths or suicides.

The researchers call this an "epidemic," but I call this business as usual -- because when it comes to pain, we're total wimps. We pop pills for every little ache and pain, and the numbers reach shocking new highs every year.

Just last year, the generic form of Vicodin, was the most prescribed drug in America, with 131 million doses given out -- up from 112 million just four years earlier.

The U.S. has 4.6 percent of the planet's population... but uses up 99 percent of the global hydrocodone supply and 80 percent of all opioids, according to ABC News.

With those numbers still growing rapidly, that means our national drug problem -- the "legal" one -- is going to get a whole lot worse before it gets better.

Explaining the pain,

William Campbell Douglass II, M.D.

P.S. Research has shown that painkillers can stop antidepressants from working... which is comical, since most antidepressants don't work in the first place. Do yourself a favor -- don't choose one over the other. Skip 'em both.