Americans hoarding large amount of opioids

According to a recent study by the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, about 92% of patients taking prescription painkillers do not finish using them. Less than 10% dispose of their excess medications properly, either by returning them to pharmacies, hospitals, or other designated return locations.

Mark Bicket, a pain-management specialist at Johns Hopkins, and the leader of the study said that it didn’t matter what type of injury patients had, most had pills they didn’t use. About 75% of the patients studied did not keep their prescription drugs in a locked medicine cabinet, and they became a source of illegal use by other adults and adolescents in the household.

Commenting on the study, Keith Humphreys, professor of psychiatry and behavioural sciences at Stanford University, noted that about 200 million prescriptions for opioids are written each year in the US. That is about the same as the number of adults in the country, creating a huge reservoir of drugs to access.

Having that many pills available at home leads to abuse. Sometimes, a family member decides to experiment with drugs just to see how it feels and then becomes addicted. With a street value in the US of about $20 (£15) for a 20mg OxyContin pill, some take the entrepreneurial route and sell the drugs they find.

Humphreys thinks the rate of prescribing opioids is excessive, noting that even if it were reduced by 75%, the US would still rank among the top countries in prescribing opioids. He added that while there is not an accurate estimate available, he believes that the ‘off-book’ supply of opioids must be ‘massive.’