Prescription Drug Abuse Drives Huge Spike In Poisoning Deaths Among Children: Report

A spike in deaths among teenagers abusing prescription drugs ran counter to an overall decline in children dying from unintentional injuries, according to a government report.

An uptick in teenagers overdosing on prescription drugs drove the almost doubling of fatal poisonings among American children, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports Monday.

From 2000 to 2009, the number of children aged 15 to 19 who died from poisoning increased by 91 percent, the CDC says. The big jump in poisonings ran counter to the overall rate of deaths from unintentional injuries to people up to age 19, which fell 29 percent to 11 in 100,000 children, or 9,143 fatalities, in 2009.

Childhood death from poisoning rose 80 percent over the 10-year time period, owing largely to the huge increase in such deaths among children aged 15 to 19. Prescription drug abuse is to blame, according to the CDC.

"The percentage of poisoning deaths among those aged 15–19 years with prescription drugs as a contributing cause increased from 30% in 2000 to 57% in 2009," the report says.

The Obama administration's Drug Enforcement Agency has stepped up efforts to target physicians, pharmacies and other medicine suppliers it suspects of facilitating sales of prescription medicines that make their way onto the black market. The White House issued a multi-agency plan to combat prescription drug abuse last year. Narcotic prescription painkiller overdoses kill 40 people a day, according to the CDC.

Thirty-seven percent of all children who died in 2009 were killed as a result of unintentional injuries, making it the leading cause of death for children from ages 1 to 19.

"In 2009, child and adolescent unintentional injuries resulted in approximately 9,000 deaths, 225,000 hospitalizations, and 8.4 million patients treated and released from emergency departments," the CDC report says. Boys are more likely than girls to die this way.

Automobile accidents remained the number-one cause of unintentional injury-related deaths among children, despite a 41 percent reduction in the rate of these fatalities between 2000 and 2009, the CDC reports. In 2009, 4,564 children died as a result of motor vehicle incidents. Like poisonings, suffocations also increased and were the cause of death for 907 babies in 2009.

Photo by Flickr user TerryJohnston

Comments

[wilsoncombatgrl]

02:02 AM on 04/18/2012

Love this quote:

Did you know America ranks the lowest in education but the highest in drug use? It's nice to be number one, but we can fix that. All we need to do is start the war on education. If it's anywhere near as successful as our war on drugs, in no time we'll all be hooked on phonics. ~Leighann Lord

[apans]

12:34 PM on 04/17/2012

"We're the Disney-land of dope fiends"...

[AlexanderFisher]

10:42 AM on 04/17/2012

People look on the sidewalks at the intersections of our cities and see young people with little opportunity and quite often conclude that these people are responsible for things like all the drug trafficking in America. The truth is that these drugs are bankrolled by the affluent and other so-called pillars of our communities. Sometimes these people are your neighbors looking for a quick profit. Other times well established criminal enterprises. They are business people, lawyers, doctors, etc. But almost never are these people welfare mothers or some teenage punk kid with gold teeth and and tattoo’s. The real pushers drive luxury cars and live in gated communities. They always have. We spend millions of dollars controlling these substances and all we really need to do is arrest a few people at the country clubs. The supply would slow overnight. Both lobbying by the large drug profiteers plus pressure to fight the problem from the bottom up, has us spinning our wheels with no way to really solve the problem. The manufacturers don’t sell drugs to you, your kid or to your parents, but they profit from it just the same.We got rid of the SOPOR (methaqualone) problem in the 1980’s by cutting the supply off at the source. We could do that now if there were really any will to do so.

[chaya]

10:21 AM on 04/17/2012

Just keep it up, kids. By the time you're 50 and in constant pain, you will find your government no longer permits doctors to treat pain. Why? To "protect" kids from their own stupidity.

So enjoy the high now.

[hartkid]

09:49 AM on 04/17/2012

Hey, here's someplace to start: look into the number of units manufactured. Why don't we start there? If the manufacturer is making enough doses so that every man woman and child on the planet can have four per day, maybe that might be part of the problem. Reckon?

[Elbrando]

09:34 AM on 04/17/2012

Its funny how no one fears the prescription drug cartels. They have more money, more power, and more access to politicians than the "illegal" cartels. Their dealers walk around in power suits going from one doctor's office corner to another peddling their product. All the while tax payers fund the research for better stronger drugs.

God forbid someone uses a plant instead.

[AlonzoQuijana]

09:31 AM on 04/17/2012

We are an over medicated society, especially when it comes to psychoactive drugs. Who knows how many billions of Xanax, Valium and Adderal are sitting around inb medicine cabinets around the country.

[LMDAustin]

09:24 AM on 04/17/2012

and one reason why this problem is going to just get worse and worse before it gets better:
because too many people immediately flip over into talking about pro-marijuana-legalization.

I wish ppl here on HuffPost could just stay on the damn topic.

I'll bet this spike in painkiller pill deaths is reflecting the number of Rx's which can be purchased online without a prescription. But let's just ignore all that...

But ya'll go ahead and discuss legalization of pot, whatever makes you think you're discussing the topic.

and yes, you're changing the topic because legalizing pot will NOT make this better.

Just cuz YOU crave pot doesn't mean everybody does. Just because YOU can substitute pain pill use with pot use, doesn't mean everybody else could.

Go ahead and change the topic to pot all the time, knock yourself out.
But we're going to keep on reading stuff like this into the next decade.

I think the ONLY reason some people read this article in the first place, was so you could fip down to the comment section and argue pot-legalization. Shame on you if thats you.

[Nomadius]

09:11 AM on 04/17/2012

Getting high is engraved in human kind DNA. Why do you enjoy that Cabernet on Friday nights and what makes you think that is better than other options? Will a big portion of youth try to get high at least once? Denying it contributes to the severe problems we see. Accepting it will get us closer to a solution. Meanwhile, wouldn't be wiser to make the mild stuff more available or at least not illegal. If pot was legally available why would any one use alcohol and prescriptions?

[minnieme213]

09:07 AM on 04/17/2012

why would teens abuse perscription drugs like that i really dont get that

[average dude]

09:27 AM on 04/17/2012

How old are you? Teens have been getting high since forever.

[Hannah Knise]

08:57 PM on 04/18/2012

Because weed is illegal. Stealing your moms zanex wont get you 20 years in jail like a joint would.

[minnieme213]

09:03 AM on 04/20/2012

ok i didnt need to know all of that but thatnks anyway

[briglo]

09:06 AM on 04/17/2012

And yet there is an uproar over cannabis usage and legalization. Guess what? You can't over dose on cannabis, you can't died from smoking too much, it's not addictive like the methadone I have to take for the pain caused by HIV. Foremost the prescription drugs are coming from the parents so what's going on. Can't manage you kids, shouldn't of had them if you have to much on you plate as it is that you can't keep an eye on them and by the way schools aren't babysitters and day care for teenagers, it's a place of learning and should be a safe place for kids. I learned about all these harmful drugs in health class in 1980 when I was 13 years old. Parental guidance is so lacking as I witnessed volunteering in a public school, the kids are awful and don't know how to act, no parental guidance and that is what these teenagers need parents.
Brian

[wedidpredict]

08:59 AM on 04/17/2012

Aha...the gateway drugs are in your medicine cabinet, folks!!!!!!!

[ssassy78]

08:51 AM on 04/17/2012

Despite these FACTS about prescription drug deaths in teens, that won't be the 'war on drugs' we fight with them. Instead, we'll continue to demonize marijuana, and throw kids lives down the drain for smoking it by enabling the privatized prison system to profit from this right of passage.

What is the point of freedom when it only applies to some? If big pharma has the freedom to sell death to our kids, why don't people have the right to grow a weed in their back yard and smoke it?

[roybus]

08:50 AM on 04/17/2012

Since the Murray / Jackson trial, we saw how lacks the pharmacies are. Jackson used God knows how many different names to get his pills..

[mikey09]

08:46 AM on 04/17/2012

Its not just kids, a good friend is having to put her 75 yr old mom in a rehab for lortab addiction, and our local high school science teacher and girls basketball coach was just found to be breaking into homes of the elderly and stealing their pain medications, seems he's an addict too. Government will pass a ton of laws and lots of people will end up in jail, but fact is some of these medications are needed by people and those who want them will try and steal them and some addicts won't care who they hurt...no different then the addict who hurts someone for money to buy an illegal drug.