Narcotic Hydrocodone Abuse On The Rise

NEW YORK -- Health agencies and drug counselors are warning of a dramatic and dangerous rise in the abuse of medicines containing the narcotic hydrocodone, including Vicodin, Norco and Lortab.

Around the country, police seizures of hydrocodone-containing pills are second only to those of oxycodone, the related narcotic used in drugs like OxyContin and Percocet, according to a Drug Enforcement Administration review of police laboratories. Total seizures of hydrocodone pills rose from 13,659 in 2001 to 44,815 in 2010.

About 8 percent of the nation's 12th-graders have abused hydrocodone in the last year, according to a study funded by the National Institutes of Health.

There are few national figures on deaths because many states lump hydrocodone, oxycodone and other opiates together when tallying fatal overdoses. But one study showed that in Florida alone, hydrocodone caused 910 deaths and was present in the bodies of 1,803 others between 2003 and 2007.

The increase is part of a growing wave of prescription drug abuse nationwide, the DEA says.

Pharmacy robberies have nearly doubled from 380 in 2006 to 686 in 2010, as drug dealers and desperate addicts turn to violence to get their drugs.

Comments

[Rifleman1957]

05:28 PM on 09/05/2011

I have severe osteoarthritis with extreme bad in my knees, back, hands, neck (where I've had surgery), and hips. I work full-time but would be unable to w/o the pain meds I get from a specialist. I've been seeing her for over 10 years and with the meds I get I can function (not normally but well enough). I am sorry for the kids who abuse drugs but doctors already feel enough pressure from the DEA. Most doctors will not write more than one script for Lortab no matter the situation. Thankfully I have a doctor who will treat the pain as she sees fit. But most don't want to rik even a visit from the Feds. And who suffers? Patients...If I were off my meds then I'd be on disability, and then taxpayers would be helping foot the bill...

[Raven1970]

02:34 PM on 08/27/2011

There are so many posts about personal stories and how they need pain medication and this is going to make it hard for THEM. I am sorry, but they all have the same theme in common...narcissism. No one is suggesting taking away your drugs if you have a proper diagnosis. Kids together are not drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes, they are popping pain pills, they have cool names for them like Roxy's and they take time release pills, crush them and snort them, this is not pot, this is not a beer..these are drugs that are as addictive as heroine and the recovery for addiction is absolutely dismal...so I am sorry if YOU have a hard time getting your drugs, maybe you should start hanging out with teenagers and twenty year olds, because they don't seem to have a problem getting them.

[froidytoidy]

09:45 AM on 08/25/2011

Hydrocodone is extremely addicting to people of all ages, but especially the young. Youth begin with hydrocodone and end up abusing/dying from heroine. Why not make Hydrocodone a schedule II drug; make a harder for youth to get. Adults have to take special precautions in keeping prescription pain meds from their children. - we have an epidemic on our hands.

[audreymarlene]

11:09 AM on 08/24/2011

I'm just curious to know why the pharmaceutical companies manufacturing and distributing these narcotics are not help accountable for this problem. Why is it that only doctors get the blame?

[Damien Woodi]

02:51 PM on 08/23/2011

I joined a gym a couple of years to lose a little weight and tone. As time passed the muscles in my butt and back of my thighs felt like they were on the verge of cramping all the time. About a month ago I had some dental work done and was given a script for swelling. When I finished the script my muscle pain became impossible to tolerate. Getting out of bed was the worst. Standing up straight before my muscles warmed up pulled those muscles so bad. A friend of mine suggested yoga. I bought yoga for beginners DVD and did it every other night for a week. It didn't take long for me to find out how bad my posture is. So, with bad posture and lifting weights I figured I must have had a pinched nerve or something. So I took a 3 week break from the gym, started taking vicodin and kept doing the yoga DVD. I had to pay attention to my posture at all times, but when I had it right I could feel the pressure release in my lower back. And when I had it wrong I felt the instant pain in my muscles. I started feeling better a little more each day. At the end of the three weeks I decided to Google lower back pain to find out exactly what was wrong with me. I came across Sciatica.

[ThinkCreeps]

07:30 AM on 08/23/2011

Access to powerful pain medication is a vital for those in a wide range of grave medical situations.

This sort of pathetic puritan whining about low levels of abuse of important and necessary drugs is just hurting people needlessly, and making it increasing difficult for the sick and dying to get the medicine they need.

[ibsteve2u]

03:32 PM on 08/23/2011

But it is a vote-getter...like crime, terrorism, warmongering, "ooohhh those people don't look like you!", etc.

And frankly the anti-drug industry is a multibillion dollar industry that feels morally justified in telling any old lie 'cuz they're fighting "evil"...as they define "evil", of course, but hey - anything for profit and a paycheck.

That's capitalism!

[tom33jr40]

05:19 AM on 08/23/2011

I use Tylenor # 4 w/ codine -- and have used this a number of years -- I get 240 pills a month --& I better make them last -- My Doctor has now added -"OPANA" 20 mg...every 12 hours-- I have stanossis of the spine--- with Detearation the of spine I also have COPD -- And my whole body has Arthurritus-- Mess --HUH-- I am 71 years -- And I have a electric scooter -- Love it -- I read where someone is paying $ 1300 per month for 90 pills of 40 mg of Opana - That is horriable -- How can folks afford that --- My hubby is retairede Navy -- & I got 60 Apana for 3.00 What I take now for my pains is great -- ---- Jacquelyn McDevitt -South Carolina

[ernhrtn3]

04:00 AM on 08/23/2011

I have bad knees, bad elbows, and 2 back surgeries in 3 years and my doctor is completly afraid to prescribe pain medications because of the DEA, state of Florida etc. He feels like any day they are going to walk in his office and take his years of education and building a practice away because "They feel he has over prescribed pain medication" Maks it very hard for legitimate people with a need for this stuff to live with pain because of all the Pill Poopers out there who can't control themselves. Write nme a script for 100.00 cash you put in your pocket? You deserve to be arrested. Leave the legitimate doctors alone!

[lilliefaerie]

03:23 AM on 08/23/2011

Where are they getting it?

[Raven1970]

02:25 PM on 08/27/2011

Online and from Florida, I read that 70-80% of all prescribed pain medications in this country are prescribed in Florida. No surprise that this is also one of the few states that will not conform to a national database that will help monitor opiate use.

[stick4013]

01:28 AM on 08/23/2011

I have Multiple Sclerosis. A year after I was diagnosed I went through the windshied in a (not my fault) head on hiway speed MVA because someone was distracted by a cell phone. My hips were replaced then they were recalled. This will kill me. Dont play off pain meds.... I have two Black belts and I used to cut and split firewood by hand. Before this I was a picture of health. Only thing I would take is asprin...... Walk a day in my shoes before you pass judgement. Believe it or not, Pain meds. keep some of us alive. Not a feel good at all. Something that makes you decide to take your life or live...... I hope you never feel what I feel. Those of you who scoff have a temporary condition and you understand that you must easily withdraw. Myself, shoot me or treat the problem. Either way, dosent matter. -Richard Stickney

[IM2THEPOINT]

01:55 AM on 08/23/2011

I wish that the DEA would be forced to sit in a room with people like you and be made to listen to, witness your suffering. Perhaps then they wouldn't be so anxious to ban and deem illegal the usage of narcotic pain medicines. A few months back, there was reported on ABC nightly news about the DEA trying to ban hydrocodone and most other controlled pain meds because of the so called abuse.They amazingly suggested that these medications had no real medicinal purpose. I think you and other posters here would tell them differently.

[lilliefaerie]

03:41 AM on 08/23/2011

Unfortunately it is the pusher/addict that controls controlled substances. That's why when buying Sudafed we have to show a driver's license which gets logged in.*but notclass 3 narcotics. It has gotten so bad though when my husband was released from the UM last year we stopped at CVS in Ann Arbor, with my husband's driver's license, and my license and prescription, the pharmacist would not fill his morphine tablets, and with a fractured femur could not get out of the car to come to the back of the store himself. The pharmacist also refused to call his physician We'd only stopped because by the time I drove him the hour home to our pharmacy, they would be closed. So people who have ligitimate need are being denied pain med by pharmacists. I do not look suspicious, I do not look like someone on pain meds or any other thing. So, I gave my husband some of my less potent opiates, which he had also had in the hospital-but technically that was my rx, his not filled yet. When I went to our pharmacy at opening, no problem, had the rx in 3 minutes. What are people who are traveling and hurt doing for prescriptions?If we had known that CVS could not trust us, with valid identification, him saying that mr must sign it, this is not true.

[alycemd]

02:40 AM on 08/23/2011

I also have MS (primary progressive) and chronic pain from another reason. I wish there was some way I could help. Know I'm praying for you.

[postit56]

12:54 AM on 08/23/2011

I truly wish I could inflict the pain that I suffer and have suffered on some of these self-righteous ignorant people. Pain is what they use when they torture you and for a good reason, you can only take so much of it. I have suffered through double hip replacements that a year and half later I am still having problems with, arthritis raging through my back and neck to the point that I need fusion on both, three herniated discs and degenerative disc dieses. As my family Doctor of 22 years so aptly put it to me “Modern medicine has two choices, we can cut you or we can prescribe a pill.” At this point I am not ready to be cut again.

[KLA44]

02:43 AM on 08/23/2011

I have the same thing. I had one heriated disc and was operated on when I was about 20 or 21 years of age. I am now 66. For a long time after my surgery I had no pain. But when I got to the point in my early 50's the pain came back again--this time with a vengence! I also have degeneratiive disc disease with spinal stenosis and spondylolisthesis. Both of those things are in my neck and lower back. I also have diabetes. Because of that and my age now; the doctors will not operate on me any more. I also have arthritis in my back. I am allergic to non steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (like aspirin, ibuprofen,naproxen, etc. Therefore I have to take narcotics. I take 2 types. They don't cause me to get "high". They do take most of the pain away, but not all of it. But with what I do take; I can at least function. I also want you to know that I am NOT addicted to the narcotics! They do help me function better. I don't take any more than what is prescribed! I know that a lot of people take narcotics just to get high--those people are stupid. But there are also a lot of people who take narcotics that probably are very responsible. They take them because they are really in pain and probably don't take more than what is prescribed like I do.

[ayewhynot]

12:03 AM on 08/23/2011

Why in the world would anyone in their right bloody mind want to be addicted to any of these pain pills ??? All I know is that people are just playing roulette when they need to find a hobby or something to pass their time away.. Its a horrible thing having to depend on pain medication, nevermind playing games with ur life taking them for fun......

[alycemd]

12:48 AM on 08/23/2011

I doubt they want to get addicted when they first stare, but it happens.

[stick4013]

01:29 AM on 08/23/2011

Enjoy your youth - While you got it. Dont let these words eat you alive.

[crjslick50]

12:01 AM on 08/23/2011

Thank God for narcotics!

[good speed]

11:43 PM on 08/22/2011

I dont think life could be bearable without drugs. When pain strikes it is the right of any adult to choose pain relief. Thousands of years peope have been able to locate a pain reliever indigineous to there surrundings.For example , aspirin is merely the bark of the WILOW Tree. Poppy plants can be milked for their remedy against pain. We have receptors just waiting in our spine to capture this amazing chemical. I have been using drugs for 47 years and I dont have any regrets.

[alycemd]

12:49 AM on 08/23/2011

I use what has been prescribed by my physician, EXACTLY as it has been prescribed. I hope you have been doing the same.

[mrlogo1]

11:37 PM on 08/22/2011

hydrocodone is the best drug ever thats why its been around thousands of years as opium the good lord give us this to enjoy