Drug deaths reach new levels
Only recently, the Seattle Times (Oct 22, 2008) reported that ‘the number of reports of serious reactions to pharmaceutical drugs has reached a new record high in America, In the first three months of the year, 20,745 serious adverse reactions have been reported, which is 38 per cent above the average, and the highest for any quarter. These reports include 4,800 deaths’.
Next, a report by the Florida Medical Examiners Commission has concluded that prescription drugs have outstripped illegal drugs as a cause of death. An analysis of 168,900 autopsies conducted in Florida in 2007 found that three times as many people were killed by legal drugs as by cocaine, heroin and all methamphetamines put together. According to state law enforcement officials, this is a sign of a burgeoning prescription drug problem.
We wish we could give you accurate figures concerning this problem in the UK, but we can’t seem to find any.