Excerpt from: NPR (click for full article)
Israel, who lives in Buffalo, N.Y., is now on a mission to prevent more people from dying from their addiction to prescription painkillers. And he's far from alone.
These drugs have been a godsend for millions of people in pain. But they are narcotics, which means they can make people high. As a result, they are abused by millions of people. And many patients who take them for pain become dependent.
"What we're seeing, increasingly, over the last few years has been widespread abuse, and the abuse just keeps increasing," says Joseph Rannazzisi of the Drug Enforcement Administration. "It's a huge problem. And I think we're at epidemic proportions right now."
Overdoses have been rising rapidly, now killing more than 15,000 Americans every year.
"It's not a white or black or Hispanic issue. It's not a male or female issue. It's everyone," Rannazzisi says. "We see kids as young as 12 years old, elderly patients."
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