Believe me, once I morphed into an armchair sleuth to investigate the
deaths of the screen goddess Marilyn Monroe and the King of Pops
Michael Jackson from painkillers. In Marilyn’s case the evidence was
tampered with by her physicians while Michael’s case is still pending
in court (Michael died on 25 June 2009; a preliminary hearing has been
fixed for today in a US Court) Sorry, I am going astray.
The Independent today has the following report by Jeremy Lawrance,
Health Editor-
-bhuban
Warning of health ‘disaster’ as deaths from powerful painkillers treble
.
PRESCRIPIONS for powerful painkillers such as morphine have soared in
the past 20 years and researchers say addiction and death through
overdoses are rising in their wake. In the US deaths involving opioid
analgesics rose more than threefold between 1999 and 2007, from 4,401
to 14,450. They are now more common than deaths from HIV and liver
disease caused by excessive drinking. There are no equivalent figures
for the UK, but prescriptions for the strong painkillers have risen
fivefold to more than 15 million a year.
Most deaths are caused by unintentional overdose and victims are often
young.
The actor Heath Ledger died aged 28 in 2008 of an overdose.He was
taking a cocktail of prescription drugs of which the key constituent
was the powerful opioid painkiller oxycodone. More than 600,000
prescriptions for oxycodon were filled in the UK in that year; up from
600 in 1999. In the US it is known as “hillbilly heroin”.
In the BMJ, researchers from the University of Toronto, in Canada, say
addiction to opioids is a problem in all countries, including the UK.
They call for tighter restrictions on the marketing of powerful
painkillers and better education for doctors.
[There are links to more articles on the subject in the same paper by
the author. After linking up, if you care, you can get hold of the
graphics and other relevant information-bhuban]
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/disaster-looms-over-addiction-to-painkillers-2343465.html
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