Perscription Drug Overdoses are ‘Rampant in Rural States’

<div style="text-align: center"><img src="/files/u2/images.jpeg" title="pills" alt="pills" height="83" hspace="3" vspace="3" width="125" /></div>National Public Radio <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18489450" target="_blank">carried a frightening story </a> earlier this week about the rise in the number of deaths from drug overdoses. Not heroin overdoses or cocaine overdoses, but overdoses from prescription drugs. According to reporter Scott Finn, there are now five times as many deaths from prescription drugs as there are from heroin.<br /><br />Prescription drug overdose is "rampant in rural states," according to Finn. In West Virginia, it is the leading cause of death among young adults. More people under the age of 45 die from prescription drug overdoses than in car accidents. The number of overdose deaths has doubled from 1995 to 2005 and the epidemic is particularly acute in rural states.<br /><br /><b><a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18489450" target="_blank">Listen to the report</a>.</b> It will scare you out of your socks.