http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20080213/OPINION01/426249092/-1/RSS05
Actor Heath Ledger died last month from overdosing on the prescription drugs oxycodone, hydrocodon, diazepam, temazepam, alprazolam and doxylamine, according to the New York City Medical Examiner's Office.
"We have concluded that the manner of death is accident, resulting from the abuse of prescription medications," the office said.
The combination of drugs included two strong painkillers, two anti-anxiety medications and two sleeping aids.
We're glad the medical examiner's office included the word "abuse" in its findings. An accident doesn't preclude abuse.
While the elderly are considered most at risk for prescription drug abuse or misuse because they are prescribed more medications than younger people, it's the younger people who purposely use prescription drugs to get high. According to a 2005 study by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America, about one in five teenagers have tried prescription painkillers such as Vicodin and OxyContin to get high. They have been dubbed "Generation Rx," often raiding their parents' medicine cabinets.
The study also found that more teens had abused a prescription painkiller in 2004 than Ecstasy, cocaine, crack or LSD. One in 11 teens had abused over-the-counter products such as cough medicine.
After Ledger's death, an Associated Press report quoted Cindy Kuhn, a pharmacology professor at Duke University, about the actor's overdose.
"This is not rock star wretched excess," Kuhn said. "This is a situation that could happen to plenty of people with prescriptions for these kind of drugs."
This attitude -- hey, it wasn't heroin -- is part of the problem. This wasn't wretched excess? Simply because they were legal drugs? A doctor may prescribe a painkiller and a sedative to a patient, but she's never going to prescribe two of each, in addition to sleeping pills.
Elvis Presley reportedly had at least 10 prescription drugs in his system when he died in 1977.
Actor River Phoenix died of an overdose of heroin and cocaine in 1993 (just actor John Belushi did). Whether it was illegal or prescribed drugs -- it doesn't matter -- all of those people are just as dead. All of them were abusing drugs -- to "wretched excess," if you must.
In the 2005 drug study, only 48 percent of the teens said they saw "great risk" in experimenting with prescription medications. Clearly, education -- for kids and adults -- is needed.
In an interview before he died, River Phoenix stated that "addiction is not just for bad people or scum-bags; it's a universal disease."
And drugs are drugs -- all potentially dangerous and capable of being abused.
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