According to recent news pain pill abuse is caused by doctor inattention. This is true for the abuse of two main drugs; Oxycontin and Opana.
 

When an individual shoots up the pain killer Opana, ER, they know that is intended for oral use only, because it is difficult to crush and IV drug users come to learn things like that. Still, they crush on, despite the difficulties and looking for that next high, they are more interested in how to crush Opana than what the literature states about damages from pain medication abuse. What they won’t know is that health officials in Tennessee have reported that IV use of the drug Opana can lead to a rare blood disorder, called TTP (thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura). TTP is the condition where blood clots form in small veins and if it isn’t treated, it can cause death. The drug abuser won’t know this, unless he or she reads the Join Together newsletter.

Periodicals like this are chocked full of all kinds of interesting information and information, which if somehow known, or successfully used by the right people could save lives. However, the individual shooting up Opana ER is not going to be anywhere near the Join Together newsletter. If they did know about TTP, they would probably still throw caution to the wind, searching for the euphoria that fills their lives with misery – just like they did with Oxycontin. The only reason Opana ER is on the radar screen now is because Oxycontin is too hard to get and opiate abusers still they want their fix. Opana ER is center stage now, but Oxycontin didn’t bow out gracefully.

According to a SAMHSA (U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration) two percent of the population has misused prescription drugs over the past ten years. Prescription painkillers trail only marijuana in abuse rates, report shows, in the United States. Over the last decade, prescription drug abuse hit epidemic proportions, and though recently the rate of misuse has remained more constant, it is still too high.

“Any time you have 2 percent of the population using medications like this there is a lot to do, but we are doing a lot with a combination of putting tighter controls on who can get these drugs and public education,” said Peter Delany, director of SAMHSA’s Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality, reports the Health Day Reporter.