By John Amaruso
Mayor Bloomberg has taken action to combat the epidemic of
prescription pill addiction by limiting access to painkillers for
hospital patients. The plan would severely limit access to some of the
more notorious prescription painkillers like Vicodin and Percocet, while
drugs like Oxycontin, a powerful painkiller derived from the poppy seed
thebaine, will become virtually non existent in hospital emergency
rooms.
Critics of the Mayor's plan claim that this would only
penalize the poor who's only means of available health care come from
emergency room visits. The Mayor fought back against the claim, saying
the epidemic of painkiller addiction must be addressed and overcome.
""There's nothing that you can possibly do where somebody isn't going to
suffer, and it's always the same group claiming, 'Everybody is
heartless.' Come on, this is a very big problem." said Mayor Bloomberg
after critics lambasted the measure.
Mayor Bloomberg stated that
over 250,000 people over the age of 12 are addicted to painkillers. The
Mayor said his measures would help reduce excess drugs that are
prescribed to law abiding patients from transferring to the hands of
drug dealers and users. "If you break a leg, you're going to be in pain,
nothing wrong with getting something that reduces the pain,... But if
you get 20 days worth of pills and you only need them three days,
there's 17 days sitting there. Invariably some of the kids are going to
find them, or you're going to take them and get addicted." added Mayor
Bloomberg.
Violent robberies at pharmacies across the country
have shined light on the growing prescription pill problem in the United
States, as hundreds of robberies are committed for the sole purpose of
obtaining these highly addictive drugs.
According to the CDC,
prescription drug overdoses have more than tripled in the United States
since 1990, and it is estimated that 100 people a day die from
prescription drug overdoses.
