Prescription Painkiller Crisis: Why Do Americans Consume 80 Percent Of All Prescription Painkillers?By Michael Snyder And of course many dont make it back at all. According to the CDC,more than 28,000 Americans died from opioid overdoses in 2014. Incredibly, those deathsrepresented 60 percent of all drug overdose deaths in the United States for that year A report released by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in January revealed that drug-overdose deaths reached a new high in 2014, totaling 47,055 people. Opioids, a type of powerful painkiller that requires a prescription, were involved in 60% of those deaths. Many Americans who start out on legal opioids quickly find themselves moving over to heroin because it is often cheaper and easier to obtain, and the U.S. is now facing a tremendous epidemic of heroin abuse as well. In fact, the number of Americans that die of a heroin overdose nearly quadrupled between 2000 to 2013. Finally, the federal government has started to take notice of this crisis. A bill was recently passed to spend more than a billion dollars over the next two year fighting this problem. But as long as doctors are writing thousands upon thousands of new prescriptions for these painkillers each year, this crisis is not going to go away any time soon. In the Appalachians, these prescription painkillers are commonly known as hillbilly heroin, and all of the attention that the New Hampshire primaries received focused a lot of attention on how this crisis is destroying countless numbers of lives up in the Northeast. But one survey found that the states with the biggest problems with painkiller addiction are actually in the West The National Survey on Drug Use and Health, a survey of approximately 67,500 people across the United States, found that the states with the highest rates of narcotic painkiller abuse were in the West Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington. Unless you are about to die, I would very strongly recommend that you resist any attempt by your doctor to put you on these medications. Just consider what happened to one stay-at-home mothernamed Norah Mangan I am an educated, suburban wife and stay-at-home mother of four. Life had been good to me until a fateful visit with an orthopedic physician, my chief complaint being mild arthritic pain in my toes. My physician handed me the first of many monthly prescriptions for Oxycodone and what followed that appointment was a rapid descent into hell. Within six months, I had become a raving drug addict. Before too long, Norah had to turn to means that were less than legal in order to keep fueling her addiction. Her life was turned into a complete and utter disaster by drugs that were legally prescribed to her It wasnt long before my legal monthly prescription fell woefully short in terms of keeping my life altering pain at bay. In the interest of not incriminating myself, Ill simply share that when procured through other means, Oxycodone generally sells for one dollar per milligram. I was draining our savings and was out of my mind. I was so tortured that I didnt care about the deterioration of my moral values, in fact, I didnt even notice. Its hard to imagine that in such a short period of time I had morphed from a Mrs. Cleaver, baking hot cinnamon buns in anticipation of my childrens arrival home from school, to Scarface crushing pills on the glass top of the executive desk in our home office while thinking to myself as I heard them arrive from schoolwhy oh why are they home already? You can read the rest of her amazing story right here The truth is that we are the most drugged people on the face of the planet. It has been estimated that 52 million Americans over the age of 12 have used prescription drugs in non-medical ways, and this problem gets worse with each passing year. According to research that was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, 59 percent of all U.S. adults are currently on at least one prescription drug, and 15 percent of all U.S. adults are on at least five prescription drugs. And the numbers are far worse for older Americans. The following statistics come from one of my previous articles We are a deeply unhappy nation that has been trained to turn to pills as a quick fix for our hurt and our pain. Yes, there are medical situations that call for prescription pain relievers. But what we are seeing in America today goes far, far beyond that. We are a nation of addicts that is always in search of a way to fill the gaping holes that we feel deep in our hearts. This prescription pain killer crisis is just another symptom of a much deeper problem. So what is the solution? Please feel free to tell us what you think by posting a comment below Michael Snyder is a writer, speaker and activist who writes and edits his own blogs The American Dream and Economic Collapse Blog. Follow him on Twitter here. People of middle age in USA will not live as long as their parents grandparents. It is purposeful population reduction with a bonus of profit for big pharma the prison system. We are bombarded nonstop with ads that tell us we can only be happy or healthy with drugs. Tainted food,water,air, medicines derelict doctors add to it. Distractions from family values quality time with video games,TV,sports,not stop fear,hate politics in media; all contributing to stress, lack of nutrition, exercise real human interaction. Revolution is the solution. Its the only way left to fix the (numerously faceted) problem. The AMA is working as prescribed. Get em hooked and keep coming back. Doctors are manchurian candidates (6 years of brainwashing). BTW: Big pharma should be a target in their pretend war on drugs. Big Pharma will never big become the target so long as politician accept their donation. Hillary Clinton has received more donations from the industry than all other candidates put together, it is her they want so I would be extremely wary of her. The problem with mass medicating is to control and make billions of dollars. Interesting as these drugs are seen as addiction, then who is the drug dealer? Finding the cause, then teaching diet and healthy lifestyle first, before meds, to correct and maintain health, can solve a lot of health issues. LOVE Truthstream Media, I hope others have benefitted from your sharing it here. I apologize, I should have been more clear in my original comment. Youre right, never could we fight the regime with violence to oust them, they are too advanced, us regular old peons just cant match what they have at their disposal. Its practically a guaranteed lose. What I meant by revolution, was a revolution in thinking, in the way we collectively go about life. If enough of us simply cut the powers that shouldnt be out of our lives, by cutting out every part of the system from our lives, we could render them obsolete irrelevant practically overnight. Providing for our own healthcare, food, energy, as small communities. This was what I meant by revolution. 