Perils of prescription drug abuse

When used according to physicians' orders and only by the person to whom the drugs are prescribed, prescription medications can vastly improve medical outcomes and provide needed pain relief.

But if these medications are abused, some of them can be highly addictive and lethal. This is a growing concern now that prescription drug abuse has nearly eclipsed the use of illicit street narcotics worldwide. In the United States, the abuse of painkillers, stimulants, tranquilizers and other prescription medications has exceeded nearly all illicit drug use except marijuana.

Controlling this epidemic may be even more vexing than narcotic interdiction because these drugs — many of them counterfeit — are marketed from unregulated markets via the Internet, courier services or the mail. Other abusers shop doctors to obtain multiple prescriptions of certain drugs. Home medicine cabinets are frequently targeted in residential burglaries. Some youth steal medications prescribed for others in their households for their own use or to sell to others.

Cracking down on this phenomenon is also hindered by the fact that some people do not perceive that prescription drugs are dangerous. These are prescribed by doctors, after all. But many people ignore prescription limits or use the drugs to self-medicate for unrelated physical or mental illnesses.

In the United States, this form of abuse has grown exponentially, nearly doubling to 15.1 million people in 2003 from 7.8 million in 1992. The drugs of choice? The painkillers oxycodone and hydrocodone, which are sold under the trade names OxyContin and Vicodin.

OxyContin abuse has contributed to multiple pharmacy robberies in Utah in recent months, so many that a pharmaceutical company has offered rewards for information leading to the arrests of suspects. Many pharmacies have quit stocking the drug over concerns about robberies.

Some Utah police officers say an upsurge in heroin use here may be tied to OxyContin addictions. When OxyContin is unavailable, heroin is a less-expensive substitute.

Public policy officials must give this trend equal weight with illegal drug trafficking, which is dropping while abuse of prescription drugs increases. Then again, the International Narcotics Control Board, which is affiliated with the United Nations, says the true scope of this problem is not known because too few countries are actively tracking the trend. Since this is a worldwide phenomenon, nations need to pay closer attention to these activities and exchange information on counterfeit drug seizures.