Over the past few years we have written about the dangers of prescription drug abuse. There is no doubt prescription drugs can be and often are deadly. The statistics are alarming:
- Every 19 minutes someone dies from a drug overdose in the United States.
- This number includes those dying from both legal and illegal drugs; however, most are due to legal prescription drugs.
- Accidental overdoses from prescription drugs now exceed the combined total of deaths from heroin, crack and methamphetamines.
- Accidental deaths from overdoses resulting from legal prescription drugs now exceed deaths by car accidents.
- 80% of the world’s pain pills are consumed in the United States, according to 2011 congressional testimony from the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta’s new documentary, “Deadly Dose”
On Sunday, November 18, 2012, CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta presented his new documentary “Deadly Dose.” If you missed it, mark your calendars now to see an encore of this one-hour documentary on CNN Saturday, Dec. 1 at 8:00pm and 11:00pm ET & PT.
In this new documentary Dr. Gupta presents facts and introduces you to people who have lost loved ones to what Dr. Gupta describes as the #1 epidemic in our country. He is hoping to make a difference and calls upon President Clinton to help in this endeavor. As Dr. Gupta says:
“Clinton has dedicated a significant part of his post-presidency domestic
efforts to this cause, and it will not come as a surprise that he has
identified areas where we can all make a difference. You will hear his
thoughts on this issue for the first time in the documentary.”
Dr. Drew interviews Dr. Gupta about “Deadly Dose”
This past week Dr. Drew Pinksy interviewed Dr. Gupta about the prescription drug abuse epidemic.
You can see the video here.
Getting ready for the holiday season
The holiday season is underway. This is the time of year when we hope to spend time with family and we start to make our checklists and checking them twice. We figure out who will be sharing Thanksgiving with us, we plan our menus, we do our grocery shopping and then as soon as Thanksgiving is behind us we start to look forward to the December holidays that include Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa.
Once again we make lists, we decorate our homes, we shop, and we look forward with great anticipation seeing our loved ones and spending time together. This is also a time when many of our children may come home on school break and suddenly we realize that something is not quite right.
It is often during a holiday celebration that we recognize one of our loved ones is suffering from the disease of addiction. Don’t be afraid to ask questions and to seek help for your family member.
