Tagged: prescription drugs

For Rhode Islanders between 15 and 44 years old, the leading cause of death is accidental drug overdose, usually involving prescription painkillers.  State health leaders are calling it an epidemic. There’s growing evidence that tracking the number of pills doctors prescribe to potential abusers might ease the problem. But Rhode Island’s fledgling prescription drug monitoring program is just getting started.

The dark side of opiates

Tomorrow on Morning Edition, you can catch my story about Rhode Island's fledgling prescription drug monitoring program. It's a program that's supposed to spot troubling trends in prescription drug misuse. And as you might know, there's plenty of trouble to spot in Rhode Island, where prescription drug overdose death rates have soared along with rates of addiction to narcotic painkillers.

Opioids are narcotic painkillers, and they include popular drugs with brand names like OxyContin, Vicodin, and Demerol. Heroin is another. And while the former have eased the pain of many, all of these drugs are potential killers. They're incredibly addictive. And prescription drug overdose deaths, according to what many health care providers and experts tell me, have reached epidemic status in Rhode Island.

Rhode Island collected more than 2300  pounds of pharmaceuticals this past Saturday during a statewide prescription drug take-back event.

The Attorney General’s office says that beats the record of all six previous take-back events in Rhode Island.

Rhode Islanders were encouraged to bring unused or expired prescription medications to several locations throughout Rhode Island for authorities to dispose of safely.

In the past year and a half, according to Rhode Island Department of Health records, seven physicians have been disciplined--some even forced to stop practicing medicine--for improperly prescribing narcotics.