Over 200,000 pounds of drugs like codeine, morphine, oxycodone, hydrocodone and meperidine were purchased from retail outlets according to the most recent data available. Such a figure is enough to give 300 milligrams of painkillers to everyone in the United States.
Oxycodone, the key ingredient in Oxycontin, a painkiller notorious for its ability to cause crippling addictions, saw a sixfold jump in usage. Painkillers are appealing to a broad spectrum of Americans, from Appalachia, where Vicodin sales are among the highest in the nation, to Long Island, where codeine use ranks among the highest in the nation.
A report by the AP using data from the DEA analyzed federal data that links an aging population, a torrent of marketing by drug companies and new philosophies regarding pain management as being among the causes of the increasing number of people who take pain medication.
The report also found widespread abuse of the drugs by those taking them as well as doctors and pharmacists who misled patients about the addictive properties of the drugs.
