Growing Crisis of Prescription Drug Abuse

DID YOU KNOW...

• Canadians have become the second-largest consumers of prescription narcotics and other controlled substances per capita in the world, according to the International Narcotics Control Board.
• The Ontario Ministry of Health spent $156 million on narcotics for Ontario Drug Benefit Program recipients in 2009-10, for 3.9 million prescriptions. This equates to an average of over six prescriptions per person, and an annual cost of $260 per person.
• According to the Canadian Centre for Substance Abuse, drug overdoses have risen at an alarming rate, with deaths from oxycodone increasing 416 per cent between 1999 and 2004.
• The province of Ontario recorded 400 deaths from abuse of opioids such as oxycodone, morphine and codeine - twice as many as died in traffic accidents!
• In Ontario, there was an almost 250% increase in the number of emergency room visits related to narcotics between 2005 and 2011.  Those visits included everything from intoxication to withdrawal to overdose.

Patients seeking narcotic medications are a big problem in many hospital emergency rooms.  Many patients are presenting to the ER wanting refills – the reason being lost or stolen pills, but another common excuse is, “I accidentally spilled my pills down the toilet.”  Prescription of narcotics is restricted in many Emergency Rooms across the province.

If you are an individual who is prescribed narcotics for chronic pain management, it is imperative that you have your prescriptions renewed by your primary care provider rather than the Emergency Room.  It is your responsibility as a patient to make an appointment with your provider to have your prescription(s) renewed before they run out.

Be an active member of your health care team!