Our View: Too many pain pills

Thanks to my lovely wife who sent me this article to comment on. The Ogden Standard-Examiner had this to say. "When it comes to treating pain, it's true that most of us don't have empathy for those who truly suffer from constant physical pain. Prescription pain killers are mercy for these unfortunates, and they rely on professional physicians for relief. However, if a recent report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is any indication, there are too many Utahns using pain pills who either don't need them or are not receiving them in a proper, legal manner."

"The numbers are 35,000 adults in Utah who are illegally using dangerous prescription pain killers, mostly oxycodone and hydrocodone. This is a dangerous game our neighbors, family members and friends are playing. These pain killers will kill you if you take too many of them. Those who abuse the drugs have obviously developed a tolerance for the drug that long ago ceased to have any relationship with real physical pain. What happens is abusers need more of the drug to get the feeling they crave or release from phantom pain. In 2007, more than 260 Utahns died due to a prescription pain medication overdose. About half of those deaths were of persons who did not have a prescription. They were scrounging for pain pills prior to finally killing themselves."

"Although it is ultimately the responsibility of the individual to not allow addiction to occur, the CDCP numbers show that 97 percent of Utah's 35,000 illegal pain pill users got the drugs from a friend or a relative. And only about a tenth of those cases involved pills being taken without the consent of the owner. It's clear that too many of us are serving as enablers for friends and family members who abuse pills. We need to do all we can not to be enablers. We must say no, and in some cases, we may need to contact the authorities if no doesn't work. A good first step is to dispose of all unused pain pills. There are specific methods that help prevent the pills from being abused."