opioid epidemic

Prescription drugs line a cabinet in this March 25, 2011 photo. (Photo by Eric Hunsaker/Flikr)
(ANALYSIS) — Travis Bornstein never told his friends about his son Tyler’s drug problem. He was too embarrassed.
Then, on September 28, 2014, Tyler’s body was found in a vacant lot in Akron, Ohio. The 23-year-old had become addicted to opioid pain killers after several sports-related injuries and surgeries. Unable to afford long-term treatment, he ultimately turned to a cheaper drug — the heroin that killed him.

OxyContin pills are arranged for a photo at a pharmacy in Montpelier, Vt.
(REPORT) — As the toll of the opioid epidemic grows, scores of doctors have lost their licenses and some have gone to prison. Pharmacies are being sued and shuttered. Pharmaceutical manufacturers are under investigation and face new rules from regulators.
But penalties against companies that serve as middlemen between drug companies and pharmacies have been relatively scarce 2014 until recently.

A marijuana bud is seen at a medical marijuana facility in Unity, Maine. A new study suggests that cannabis could help ease the deadly opioid epidemic in the United States.(AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File)
AUSTIN, Texas — A new study suggests that cannabis could help ease the deadly opioid epidemic in the United States.

A new study from the University of Kentucky has confirmed that the rate of babies born addicted to opioids has risen at an utterly alarming rate.

Doctors are blamed and so is Big Pharma; but no matter who is actually at fault, America is in the throes of a full-on addiction to pharmaceutical painkillers. The epidemic isn’t being driven by any illicit drugs, but by a surge in the use of prescription opioid painkillers.