What is in this article?:
Pain medication-related robberies put pharmacies on high alert, and prompt new security measures
Sidebar: The Cost of Addiction
• In 2010, about 12 million Americans (age 12 or older) reported nonmedical use of prescription painkillers in the past year.
• The quantity of prescription painkillers sold to pharmacies, hospitals and doctors’ offices was 4 times larger in 2010 than in 1999.
• Nearly half a million emergency room visits in 2009 were due to people misusing or abusing prescription painkillers.
• Non-medical use of prescription painkillers cost health insurers up to $72.5 billion annually in direct health care costs.
• Prescription painkiller overdoses killed nearly 15,000 people in the U.S. in 2008, up from 4,000 in 1999.
• Many states report problems with “pill mills” where doctors prescribe large quantities of painkillers to people who don’t need them medically. Some people also obtain prescriptions from multiple prescribers by “doctor shopping.”
Source: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
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