newjerseynewsroom.com

Chiesa said that prescription drug abuse is growing at an alarming rate. In 2010, New Jersey saw 7,238 admissions to substance abuse treatment programs as a result of prescription painkiller abuse. That number represents a 230 percent increase from 2005, according to statewide statistics collected by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).

The attorney general noted, for example, that between Nov. 3 and Dec. 7, a person obtained a four-month supply of oxycodone and methadone by presenting prescriptions, now believed to be forged, to three New Jersey pharmacies on a total of 14 occasions. The person circumvented the safeguards that pharmacies and insurance carriers use to spot such abuse by spreading out his visits between the pharmacies, and by paying with cash in some instances and by insurance in others.

As a result, in one month the individual obtained a total of 2,520 doses of addictive, narcotic medications classified as Controlled Dangerous Substances. The prescription abuse was uncovered this month through the NJPMP.

Every day, 40 Americans die from abusing narcotic prescription painkillers, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Prescription drug abuse deaths have more than tripled in the past decade and now kill more people in the U.S. than heroin and cocaine combined. Opioid pain medication abuse accounts for the most common poisonings treated in emergency departments and nearly 1 million Americans are currently addicted to some type of opiate – costing insurance companies, according to some reports, upwards of $75.5 million a year.

The State Commission of Investigation in June reported that a growing number of young people are abusing prescription drugs, and noted a significant trend in which young people who became addicted to painkillers eventually turned to heroin as a cheaper substitute.

For more information on Consumer Affairs’ initiative to halt prescription drug abuse visit:

www.NJConsumerAffairs.gov/PMP.

— TOM HESTER SR., NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM