A precedent-setting study done by the Canadian Medical Association says that the number of prescription opioid overdose deaths has doubled in Ontario, most of the drugs were prescribed and ⅔ of overdose victims had seen a doctor within 1 month of the overdose. Teen Challenge responds.

A dramatic increase in prescriptions for oxycodone drugs like Oxycontin and Percocet, has placed Canada third behind the United States and Belgium in per capita prescriptions.

Between 1991 and 2007, prescriptions for these powerful narcotics increased 850%!

Many people use and are prescribed these drugs legitimately, but these opioids are very powerful and very addictive. Study author Dr. Irfan Dhalla is quoted by the Edmonton Sun: "Drug-related deaths are much more likely to occur from prescription drugs than heroin."

If you, or someone you know, is legitimately taking these drugs — take precautions. Keep yourself accountable to others and safely dispose of unused portions immediately. Never mix or combine drugs, or consume alcohol while using a prescription drug.

As a society, we’ve learned to take a pill to fix every hurt and many illnesses, and many of us even take a pill to avoid getting sick. And it's not wrong, but let’s be sure to send a positive message about responsibly using drugs and prescriptions to our children.

Read the article:

Overdose deaths from painkillers skyrocketing in Ontario: report

Ontario study says painkillers causing twice the number of overdose deaths they were two decades ago; most dying got prescriptions, saw doctors

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.

The increase mirrors a dramatic rise in prescriptions for oxycodone, a potent opiate found in OxyContin and Percocet that has proliferated in an epidemic of chronic pain that has turned Canadians into a nation of pill-poppers – using more prescription opioids per capita than any country but the United States and Belgium.

The Canadian Medical Association study, released Monday, found that between 1991 and 2007, opioid-related deaths doubled in Ontario – from 13.7 per million people to 27.2. During that same period, oxycodone prescriptions – added in 2000 to the list of drugs Ontario’s drug plan covers – shot up 850 per cent, and the number of oxycodone-related deaths quintupled.

More tellingly, about two-thirds of people who died of prescription opioid overdoses had seen a doctor in the past month; more than half had filled an opioid prescription in that month, and more than 80 per cent in the previous year. The typical patient had seen a doctor 15 times in the year before they died. Those overdosing on oxycodone are predominantly people with family doctors or, at the very least, easy access to a walk-in clinic. They aren’t buying their drugs on the street, or if they are it’s to supplement prescriptions they’re obtaining with some degree of legitimacy.

Although there have been studies of opioid-related deaths in the United States and elsewhere, this is the first study of its kind in Canada – and the first in the world to examine whether people dying of prescription-opioid overdoses are within the health system.

Find the whole article here.