I read a truly amazing statistic today: In 2005 – the latest year for which figures are available – U.S. hospitals delivered 108 million emergency department visits. That’s like saying every third person in America hit an emergency ward at least once that year. Since that’s out of the question, it means some people have to be going to emergency over and over again. I also noticed that 1.5 million of those 108 million visits were for drug misuse or abuse. I wasn’t surprised that illicit drugs were involved in 57% of them, but I was surprised that 49% involved pharmaceuticals abuse or misuse. That sends a clear message about how bad the over-the-counter and prescription drug abuse and misuse problem has become. The recent statistics on OxyContin addiction and abuse prove the point. It also says that hundreds of thousands of people need drug detox and drug rehab.

These statistics, released by the Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN), showed that the problem is increasing every year. The greatest increase involves stimulant drugs such as methamphetamine, a 33% increase, followed by respiratory agents such as antihistamines and decongestants, a 31% increase. Opioids such as the addictive pain reliever OxyContin increased 24%. And there were increases for antipsychotics, benzodiazepines and other pharmaceuticals.

A lot of people turn up at emergency departments with problems from taking combinations of substances, like alcohol with pharmaceuticals or illicit drugs, or combinations of all three. In fact, when we look at these figures and include drug combinations, the picture gets even darker. And the numbers of people needing drug detox climb. Here are the figures – take a look for yourself and check out the numbers for pharmaceutical combinations:

TYPE OF EMERGENCY - NUMBER OF VISITS

All types of drugs misuse/abuse - 1,449,154

Illicit drugs only - 450,296

Pharmaceuticals only - 395,617

Illicit drug combinations (all) - 559,218

Illicit drug combinations (no pharmaceuticals) - 199,008

Pharmaceutical combinations (all) - 701,486

Pharmaceutical combinations (no illicit drugs) - 590,834

Well, there you have the whole picture – and remember, that was two years ago, it’s estimated to be worse today. If this isn’t a good argument for taking America by the hand and leading us toward a pharmaceutical-drug-free alternative lifestyle, nothing is. Instead, pharmaceuticals are taking over the drug scene. We need to ensure that at the first sign of any kind of abuse or dependence among our friends, family members or even ourselves, we get busy, get help, and get into drug detox and, possibly, drug rehab as a follow up.