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Number of Prescription Painkiller Deaths More Than Tripled in Last 10 Years

 The number of Americans who died from overdoses of prescription painkillers more than tripled in the past decade, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). More people now die from painkillers than from heroin and cocaine combined.

An estimated 14,800 people died in the United States from painkiller overdoses in 2008, a more than threefold jump from the 4,000 deaths recorded in 1999, the CDC said in a new report.

Prescription and illegal drugs caused 36,450 deaths in 2008, compared with 39,973 deaths from motor vehicle crashes, according to the Associated Press.

The CDC said painkiller abuse and deaths are rising because the drugs are easier than ever to obtain. They cited the growth of “pill mills,” clinics that prescribe opioids without first conducting medical exams, and “doctor shopping,” or receiving multiple prescriptions from different doctors.

According to the CDC, enough painkillers were prescribed in 2010 to medicate every American adult around the clock for a month. “Right now, the system is awash in opioids—dangerous drugs that got people hooked and keep them hooked,” said CDC Director Thomas Frieden.

“Prescription drug abuse is a silent epidemic that is stealing thousands of lives and tearing apart communities and families across America,” Gil Kerlikowske, Director of National Drug Control Policy, said in a CDC news release. He noted health care providers and patients should be educated on the risks of prescription painkillers. “Parents and grandparents should properly dispose of any unneeded or expired medications from the home and to talk to their kids about the misuse and abuse of prescription drugs,” he noted.

Meth Labs Get Smaller and Easier to Hide

Methamphetamine is increasingly being made in the United States in small labs that are easy to move and hide, The Wall Street Journal reports.

These “one-pot” labs use a two-liter soda bottle and ingredients that can be bought through a single trip to a pharmacy. These small labs are spreading at a time when budget cuts are reducing police forces, making it more difficult for police to close down these labs.

Although the labs only produce small amounts of meth, they are toxic and highly explosive, and can cause fires and deaths. Incidents related to meth production increased to 11,239 last year, after falling to 6,095 in 2007, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.

The growth of small meth labs has prompted some states to propose bills that would require a doctor’s prescription for over-the-counter cold medicines that contains pseudoephedrine, the main ingredient in meth. Such laws already have been passed in Oregon and Mississippi.

Drug manufacturers are financing a national tracking network to monitor pseudoephedrine sales. So far 17 states have signed up. After federal regulations began to limit over-the-counter sales of pseudoephedrine to a few grams a day in 2006, meth producers began scaling down recipes so that just a few cold medicine packages are needed.

In many states, agencies have had to abandon tactics to confront meth manufacturers, after the federal government in February canceled a program that provided $19.2 million in 2010 to assist local agencies in disposing of meth labs.

Specialized training is needed to clean up meth labs, because making meth requires dangerous ingredients including ammonia, battery acid and drain cleaner. The waste cannot be discarded in a regular landfill.

Almost 70 Percent of Smokers Want to Quit, But Few Do

A new government study finds almost 70 percent of American smokers want to quit, and more than half tried last year, but only 6 percent succeeded.

 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found most people who tried to quit smoking did not use medicine or counseling, which can double or triple success rates, according to a CDC news release. Most people who wanted to quit smoking did not receive smoking cessation advice from a doctor, the report noted.

 Almost 76 percent of African-American smokers wanted to quit in 2010, according to The Wall Street Journal. While 59 percent tried, only 3 percent were successful, the lowest rate among races and ethnicities measured by the CDC.

 Smokers who had a college degree had an 11 percent success rate, compared with just 3 percent with smokers with fewer than 12 years of education.

 The report notes that making health care settings, public places and workplaces smoke free encourages smokers to quit. The CDC also urged the health care industry to provide comprehensive insurance coverage, with no deductibles or co-payments for smoking cessation services and treatments.

What are the Impacts of Good Samaritan Laws?

Interest is growing in Good Samaritan laws aimed at saving lives by encouraging people who witness drug overdoses to call 911. The laws provide legal immunity from drug possession prosecution both for the person who overdoses and his or her companion who calls for help. But much is not yet known about the laws’ impact on drug users, bystanders, paramedics and police.

 A research team at the University of Washington is studying the impact of Washington State’s Good Samaritan law, which not only provides this legal immunity, but also allows the prescribing of an opioid antidote medicine, naloxone (Narcan), to drug users and their partners. The law states a person acting in good faith may receive a naloxone prescription, possess naloxone and administer naloxone to an individual suffering from an apparent opiate-related overdose.

 New Mexico and New York have similar laws and others are currently working on passing such legislation. About 15 other states also have programs to distribute naloxone, which can help a person who has stopped breathing because of an opiate drug overdose (heroin or prescription-type opiates) to breathe more normally.

 With a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Public Health Law Research Program, Caleb Banta-Green, of the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Institute, with University of Washington colleagues Patricia Kuszler and Phillip Coffin, are investigating how the law is affecting heroin overdoses in Seattle. The study examines the legal intent, implementation and outcomes of the law. Ultimately they will report on how the law is impacting overdoses and 911 calls.

Under the law, passed in 2010, immunity does not extend to outstanding warrants, probation or parole violations, drug manufacture or delivery, controlled substances homicide or crimes other than drug possession.

Law enforcement and prosecutors’ associations initially opposed the law, thinking it was unnecessary because people are rarely arrested or prosecuted for drug possession during overdoses. However, as they heard from their constituents, such as campus police supportive of alcohol Good Samaritan laws, and learned about the dramatic increase in the use and abuse of pharmaceuticals by people across the age spectrum, they became supportive. “The law gives legal cover to what’s been standard practice for a long time,” Banta-Green says. Legislators and organizational stakeholders agreed that framing the law as a public health issue, not as a legal issue, was also key to its passage.

 As part of Banta-Green’s research, drug users, police officers and paramedics were asked about the frequency with which they encounter overdoses. They were also questioned about whether they’d heard of the law, whether they had a correct understanding of it and how they thought it would change their future actions during an overdose.

 A survey conducted this year by Public Health-Seattle and King County found that 42 percent of heroin users had witnessed an opiate overdose in the prior year and 911 was called in half of the cases. Police responded along with medics 62 percent of the time, but just one person was reported to have been arrested at the scene of an overdose. Only one-third of heroin users had heard of the Good Samaritan law. According to the survey, 88 percent indicated that now that they were aware of the law, they would be more likely to call 911 during future overdoses.