Saturday, September 17, 2011

ODs

An astonishing, at least to me, datum from the Los Angeles Times:
Drugs exceeded motor vehicle accidents as a cause of death in 2009, killing at least 37,485 people nationwide, according to preliminary data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
While most major causes of preventable death are declining, drugs are an exception. The death toll has doubled in the last decade, now claiming a life every 14 minutes. By contrast, traffic accidents have been dropping for decades because of huge investments in auto safety.

Read it all here. I am aware that prescription drugs are the top pick of your younger junkie crowd here by the bay, but I had no idea that they were killing people at such a rate nationwide. Reasons for the rash of overdose deaths are interesting and include heavy advertising and doctors who are quick on the script pad.

2 comments:

Pilot said...

....or as Pfizer, Lily, and Merck see it - collateral damage. Nevermind that their stockholders kids are dying after stealing their meds to party.

Edith Ann said...

It is a sad situation, indeed!