According to statistics recently released by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the number of overdose deaths from prescription pain killers has more than tripled since 1999. There were 13,800 people last year who lost their lives to prescribed opiod analgesics such as codeine, Vicodin, oxycodone, and Percocet.

Pain Pills Are Now More Deadly Than Heroin or Cocaine

Prescription painkillers have now surpassed illegal narcotics for overdose deaths, reported Leonard Paulozi of the CDC. In the past, more people died from heroin and cocaine and most of the deaths were in larger cities. Addiction to prescription pain killers has become a little-recognized epidemic; thousands die each year. Paulozi says that the 7.8 deaths per 100,000 people now occur in rural areas, almost as many as the 7.9 deaths per 100,000 people that are expected in urban areas.

Many people don't set out to abuse painkillers and most of the overdoses are accidental, according to Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Most are unprepared for how quickly tolerance builds to these medications, and more and more is needed to manage chronic pain. A person who is depressed or under stress is more vulnerable to addiction because narcotics give them a feeling of well being. A quick progression to combining drugs, sometimes with alcohol, and drug-seeking behavior to obtain more prescriptions can follow.

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