Take as Prescribed: Drug Addiction in the US | Fault Lines

The US consumes 80 percent of the world’s supply of painkillers, and overdoses from prescription opioid drugs kill at least 16,000 Americans every year – more than cocaine and heroin combined.

Once thought to be a problem of the young, opioid addiction is becoming more common among elderly Americans.

When asked who should have stopped it, he says it should have been the doctors. “I was just doing what the doctors told me to do.”

It is not just doctors under scrutiny. Two counties in California are suing the five major opioid drug manufacturers for “waging a campaign of deception.”

The California complaint alleges that the companies misrepresented the benefits and downplayed potential side effects of opioid use for pain management and began marketing opioids for the treatment of chronic pain.

The suit claims that the elderly population was targeted because they are more likely to suffer from chronic pain – and they are well insured.

Shirley Scharr, an 86-year-old pain patient prescribed a high-dosage of opioid painkillers, says that she does not know if she has “the courage to stop” taking them despite using other methods to reduce her pain.

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