Last updated : December 16, 2024
According to the Office of the Attorney General of Georgia, the most abused drugs are no longer the ones obtained through a street-corner drug dealer. Instead, the new drugs of choice for users across the country are attainable at the doctor’s office in the form of prescription opioids, a trend that has also taken its toll on citizens on The Peach State.
In his message to Georgia residents under the “key issues” portion of the office’s website, Attorney General Sam Olens hammered the point home, noting that deaths linked to prescription drug overdoses have now outpaced accidental poisonings due to “street drugs” such as cocaine and heroin. Olens further noted that in 2009, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that deaths from prescription drug overdoses outpaced motor vehicle fatalities in 2009 for the first time since 1979. In a another study, the CDC found that almost 60 percent of drug overdose fatalities involved prescription pills.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse reports that more than 50 million Americans age 12 or older have used prescription medicines for non-medical purposes at least once in their lifetime, with an estimated 8.76 million reporting that they abused prescription drugs in 2010. Statistics indicate the prescription drug abuse problem has cost the State of Georgia several of its residents in recent years. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation reported that 520 out of 686 drug overdose deaths involved prescription drugs, and another 72 deaths were blamed on a combination of prescription pills and illegal substances.
Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of the rise in prescription drug misuse is its prevalence among American teens. The CDC further noted that one out of five high school-aged youths admitted to taking a pill that was not prescribed to them for any medical purpose. What’s worse is that many teenagers can easily obtain prescription pills from friends and relatives; in some cases, it’s as simple as walking into the bathroom and opening the medicine cabinet.
Recognizing the need to address the issue, the Georgia General Assembly approved legislation aimed at cracking down on so-called “pill mills,” where narcotics traffickers sell prescription pills under the guise of pain management clinics. Attorney General Olens led the charge for the legislation entitled the Georgia Pain Management Clinic Act, which Georgia Governor Nathan Deal signed into law in May 2013. The move gave the Georgia Composite Medical Board the power to regulate and issue licenses for pain management clinics, making it easier to spot potential pill traffickers without hindering the legitimate pain management work of doctors. In addition, the 2013 extended more resources and tools to Georgia police officers so they could tackle the problem more effectively.
Fast forward to this week, as federal lawmakers participate in a summit at an Atlanta hotel about the prescription drug abuse epidemic with public health experts including CDC Director Tom Freiden and Dr. Frances Collins, Director of the National Institutes of Health. Included on the agenda for the two-day summit is a panel discussion about the response to the prescription abuse crisis at the federal level.
