OT Past eight years in Florida RX Drug Abuse | Arthritis Information

I moved here just when this started:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/14/us/14florida.html?th&emc=th

Law enforcement officials said that the shift toward prescription-drug abuse, which began here about eight years ago, showed no sign of letting up and that the state must do more to control it.

Hey Go-Go this part is for you:

Drugs with benzodiazepine, mainly depressants like Valium and Xanax, led to 743 deaths. Alcohol was the most commonly occurring drug, appearing in the bodies of 4,179 of the dead and judged the cause of death of 466 — fewer than cocaine (843) but more than methamphetamine (25) and marijuana (0).

LOL - She is on vacation, I will have to save this one for her return.

LOL - She is on vacation, I will have to save this one for her return.

and she never took me whith her GOod article. Yes,some prescription drugs, alcohol, cocaine, methamphetamines, they all kill. The people who acknowledge this and do not become victims are the lucky ones. The government can't do it for you.

Jan

Benzodiazepine overdose almost NEVER causes death. Barbiturates, methaqualone and other sedatives can definitely kill you, but it's damn near impossible to kill yourself with a vat of Valium alone. The article says 743 deaths were from these drugs.

Jan

Maybe it's a combination of the drug and alcohol-use? [QUOTE=Jan Lucinda]The article says 743 deaths were from these drugs. Jasmine-

What are the listed side effects of these drugs, listed by the makers?

Jan

According to emedicine, there are 5.9 fatalities per million subscriptions of benzodiazepine

www.emedicine.com/emerg/byname/toxicity-benzodiazepine.htm

Not many, but they do occur according to this source.

Jan

I'm not denying that it can't happen - just that it's damn hard. I've seen the emedicine articles, as well as the information in my pharmacology and toxicology textbooks.

"5.9 fatalities per million" - again, in how many of those cases were multiple drugs found?

The article also says "Mortality from a pure BZD overdose is rare; it usually occurs in conjunction with concomitant alcohol ingestion or use of other sedative-hypnotics. Intravenous administration or overdose of ultrashort-acting BZDs (eg, triazolam [Halcion]) is more likely to result in apnea and death. Elderly individuals and very young persons are more susceptible to the CNS depressant effects of BZDs than people in other age groups."

I'll leave it as an exercise to the reader to look up the individual drug monographs. Listed adverse reactions range from acne to auto accidents to PMS to death.

I think it is up to the individual to decide what , if any, risks they want to take.

Jan