Prescription Drug and Opiate Epidemic with Dr. Shawn Ryan

The US is the #1 country in the world for opiate prescription drug utilization

• The numbers quoted are likely greatly underestimated due to inconsistent documentation
• Death rate from opiate pain medication (OPM) has quadrupled in the time span of 1999-2010
• Death rate in 2012 was 5.6 per 100,000
• In 2011, 44 people per day died from opiate overdose in the US
• In 2007, unintentional opiate overdose became the leading cause of death in the US for young population
• OH death rate has grown faster than the national rate. At this time 5 people/day die in OH from opiate overdose