Painkillers are causing twice the number of overdose deaths in Ontario than they were two decades ago, a precedent-setting study has found. Most of the people these opioid-related drugs are killing got them through a prescription and had seen a doctor in the month before they died...Because 'prescription' means safe. Because 'Doctor recommended' means 'no worries'.
The study found prescription opioids kill, on average, 300 people in Ontario each year. HIV/AIDS, by comparison, kills 100 people annually; H1N1 has killed 100 people in Ontario so far. Other illicit drugs cause few overdose deaths by comparison.
Opioids are hard core drugs. They also work extremely well. As most heroin addicts will attest to, there ain't nothin' in the world another fix won't cure.
Relatively small study, though. Just Ontario. Still, it means that prescription opioids killed more people in one Canadian city last year than marijuana killed world wide last century. How many of those people who were prescribed that medication would have been better off had they received a non-lethal medication?
1 comment:
I'd like to know more about the study. "Overdoes on pain killers" is at times a euphemism for "granting a terminal patient the release that the law denies."
Legal assisted suicide, last I checked, is still prohibited in Ontario.
300 people is something 0.35% of all deaths there in a year -- that's pretty small.
Post a Comment