Sherrod Brown: It’s time to end prescription drug abuse
Bucyrus Telegraph Forum – In recent years, more Ohioans have died of accidental prescription drug overdoses than auto accidents. As the national death toll doubled, deaths from prescription drug overdoses tripled in Ohio.
Even more troubling, Ohio teenagers are misusing prescription drugs at alarming rates. A University of Akron Institute for Health and Social Policy study of prescription drug abuse among adolescent arrestees in Ohio suggests a correlation between prescription drug misuse and juvenile detention. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, nearly 2 million young people between ages 12 and 17 abused prescription drugs in 2008. Each day, some 2,500 young adults use prescription drugs that have not been prescribed to them — embarking on a journey toward addiction.
Prescription drug abuse in Ohio needs to be treated like the epidemic it is — requiring partnerships on the local, state and federal level.
But you don’t have to be a medical doctor or law enforcement official to help. Individual Ohioans can help solve this problem. That’s why I urge Ohioans to participate in the Nationwide Prescription Drug Take-Back Day.
