A powerful report spanning 10 years from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has revealed that painkillers are actually responsible for a whopping four times as many deaths as both heroin and cocaine combined.
The admission coincides with the initial report I told you about back in 2011, in which it was exposed that painkillers were killing around 15,000 per year back in 2008 (still more than cocaine and heroin combined). But now, we’re not just looking at a single year of data. Instead, we’re looking through an entire decade of statistics that paint a picture of just how deadly our ‘legal’ drug industry is — and it turns out it’s even more deadly than the illegal drug trade.
Even more deadly than two of the most hardcore drugs that money can buy… or at least two of the most hardcore illegal drugs that money can buy.
While the previous report documented in 2011 found that 12 million were actually on prescription painkillers purely for the high it gives, the new CDC papers found that there was a massive 415% rise in the overall rate of fatal painkiller overdoses from 1999 to 2010. We’re talking about a higher fatality rate than those who are dosing up on heroin and cocaine. Specifically, the rate of painkiller fatality deaths is about four times higher overall than cocaine and heroin combined.
Healthline reports:
“The death rate from prescription painkiller overdose—specifically opioid painkillers such as hydrocodone and oxycodone—rose 415 percent among women and 265 percent among men from 1999 to 2010, according to a CDC study released Tuesday. Officials with the CDC say there’s been a five-fold increase in prescriptions for powerful painkilling medications, but no similar increase in the incidence of painful conditions that warrant them.”
