Capitol Hill Blue Forums Science and Technology Health, Medicine & the healing Sciences Drug deaths now outnumber traffic fatalities in U.

Drug deaths now outnumber traffic fatalities in U.S., data show Los Angeles Times
Emphasis added.

For two years, I have been prescribed Oxycontin and Vicodin due to the pain from a problem hip replacement. The steel spike cake loose from the bone and the pain was more painful that anything I could imagine. I never took them together and am down to one to two vicodin a day depending on the level of pain.

Tomorrow I have my first injection of pain management. Working for Hospice has shown me that these drugs are only a problem if the patient has an addictive nature. Tomorrow, the doctor will paralyze the spine area where the pain originates and I should be pain free for about 6 months.

I've come to the conclusion that these hip and knee replacements are not ready for prime time. I watch many elderly men and women walking to the pool, ease themselves down the stairs and find relief only when they are under at least 4 feet of water. I do an extensive work out and then crawl out of the pool and drive home where I take a pill and crash for at least 30 minutes. If I were addictive, I would simply increase the drugs and forget the pain but it is affecting my ability to read with clarity. Steroid injections have added 20 pounds to my weight and 2 hours of pool water daily has made me look like something from outer space. I'm hoping the spinal shot tomorrow will work its magic and I can return to a level of normal. My Doctor has convinced me that it will work.

If I drank along with the pain pills, then I might possibly over dose. This is the problem with the elderly folks here in my area. I have heard over and over a patient claiming to never take a drink and when I care for them in their home, I can smell very strong scents of da booze. They lie and often die. I am not their judge and can do no more than to talk it over with them.

I honestly have made my plans if these shots do not work. My Death with Dignity association has many ways of bringing on an early death. My legal next of kin is aware of this and will block for me any attempt at saving my life. No one counts on me these days for anything other than conversation as the whole family is made up of responsible adults.

Pain is a killer of individual character. It is time the doctors realize they cannot keep their patients alive unless the pain is controlled. At this time it is not!

People do careless and stupid things. Sometimes they die. What is your point?
Yours,
Issodhos

You might feel a tad differently if it were a loved one who overdosed. But I've been wrong before.

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And this is the medical system that people are so anxious to protect.

Ours or yours?

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In this respect, there is no difference between Canada and the USA---the crimes and corruptions of Big Pharma are everywhere.

Prescription drugs are absurdly over-prescribed, and the brain-dead consumer-units are so overwhelmed by the brainwashing that they cannot perceive it.

My mother distrusted all doctors, and never took their quack medicines. She lived to be 93---though she broke all the "rules" about diet and exercise. Her mother did the same and lived to be 96. And my grand-mother's grand-mother, who was born when Napoleon Bonaparte was still alive, lived to be 106, though she led no easy life.

I shall follow the family tradition of contempt for the medical profession, and will be satisfied (or resigned) to live until 90, or any age less than that.

With the way the world is going, by the time I am 90, the world will not be a place worth living in.

Aside from regional issues, anyone care to comment on the fact that prescription drugs (legal) far outpace deaths from illegal drugs? Just who is this war aimed at?

Which 'war', Hoskins? Big Gov folks support all kinds of 'wars'. in this case are you referring to the 'war' on affordable cars, the 'war' on drugs, the 'war' on illegal drugs, or the 'war' on legal prescription drugs?
Yours,
Issodhos

The article that started this thread does not specifically state that the 37,500 deaths were from legal prescription drugs. It leaves open the possibility that the number includes illegal drugs such as heroin, meth, etc. I don't see where you are getting the "fact that prescription drugs . . far outpace deaths from illegal drugs."

2. While the drugs may have been legally prescribed, the anecdotal statements are pretty much all to the effect that it was illegal/improper use of the prescribed drugs that led to death. Why would either the drug companies or the prescribers be considered culpable in any way when deaths are caused by spin-the-pill-bottle parties where kids are taking drugs they do not even know the names of.

3. As to the thing about the 106,000 drug deaths, we had a discussion about this before and it appeared to me that there was a very substantial question about the number of deaths. The stats and methodology were shall we say imprecise.