Opioid overdose deaths soaring in NYC
http://drugtopics.modernmedicine.com/drug-topics/news/opioid-overdose-deaths-soaring-nyc?page=0,0
From the article:
The rate of overdose deaths in New York City jumped from 8.2 per 100,000 residents in 2010 to 11.6 per 100,000 residents in 2013, according to the report.
During those four years, there was an average of one fatal opioid overdose a day in New York City. Heroin overdose deaths more than doubled during that period, from 3.1 per 100,000 New Yorkers in 2010 to 6.2 per 100,000 New Yorkers in 2013.
To prevent and reduce overdose deaths, the Health Department funds 14 syringe access programs, counseling and education on reducing risk from drug use, and overdose prevention services. It also distributes naloxone to programs throughout the city. Since 2010, naloxone access has succeeded in the reversal of more than 400 overdoses in New York City.
New York has already made Hydrocodone products C-II’s and with a multitude of syringe access programs as well as ready availability of naloxone… Death by drugs continue to happen and especially from the ILLEGAL DRUG HEROIN… and if you notice not once was there a mention that any of the deaths were accidental or were a suicide.
Filed under: General Problems
Here is another play on words. 11.6 per 100,000 is 1/100th of 1%. Is this a HIGH number? Compare it to car accident deaths, falls, heart attacks and etc. Is there really a drug epidemic in this country? Or, is it the media, the DEA, and law enforcement making it appear like there is? All these enities that are fighting this ‘war on drugs’ have to justify there expenditures. So, they create the impression that there is an epidemic of illegal drug usage. If you took away the drugs from these 1/100th of 1% that are dying each year from drug overdosage, would that reduce the percentage or would these people find some other method of killing themselves(either accidentally or intentionally)? Another point I will make is that despite New Yorks efforts to prevent these deaths, the numbers have increased. Is there ever a point where we come to realize that ever more increased efforts to control drug abuse does not lead to reduced usage? And, just what will Hydrocodones movement to CII do? The one thing we can see is that this ‘war on drugs’ is doing is increasing the difficulty for really sick people to get pain meds, not to mention the public strip searches which you(Steve) mention in another article. Peoples rights are being violated in the name of fighting drug abuse. But, government agencies and the police departments are not interested in protecting peoples rights, they are interested in finding illegal drugs. The DEA, in their war on legitimate patients taking pain meds, does not care about the public. They are law enforcement and that is what they do. If millions of chronic pain sufferers have problems getting drugs, then so be it. The DEA does not CARE. We have people in wheelchairs coming to the pharmacy to get pain meds. Now, that Hydrocodone is CII, these people will have to go to the doc each time to get a written rx. Can you imagine how difficult it is for these people to travel to the doc? What about the expense of having hire someone to take them to the doc? What about the increased healthcare costs by all these people having to make frequent trips to the doc? And all of this is in the name of preventing 1/100th of 1% of deaths from drug overdosage. I might add, as the article says, there is 1 fatal overdose in New York per day. Well, is that a big number? Look at the population of New York? How many other people die per day in New York from other type accidents? It looks like our ‘war on drugs’ is like our wars in the Middle East… a never ending cycle. We are at perpetual war. The government keeps crying ‘wolf’. At some point the public is going to get tired of it. My question is what will the millions of baby boomers do that are aging and will be seeking pain meds going to do? Will they tolerate these excessive government agencies that are trying to shut off the usage of pain meds?
How bout stating weather the deaths were from DRUG ADDICTS ON ILLEGAL DRUGS or legitimate paiJ PATIENTs the chronic pain patients should NOT BE effected by scumbag addicts and thats exactly what the dea and whowver else continue to do and it is absolutely sickening. I bet all of those statistics were by addicts or ppl intentionally committing suicide probably due to what these ahole pharmacists r doing to them when they discriminate and lie and refuse to fill prescriptions.