With all the non harmful options\u00a0 WHY do we lose so many to drug deaths?<\/p>\n
According to the FBI<\/a>, around 15,000 people are murdered in the United States each year. Terrorism incidents like the San Bernardino shootings add another few dozen fatalities, and war operations in the Middle East bring additional casualties into the mix.<\/p>\n Yet the number of Americans killed by FDA-approved pharmaceutical drug overdoses dwarfs all those fatalities combined. According to the CDC<\/a>, there were 43,982 drug overdose deaths in 2013, and over half of those were caused by FDA approved prescription pharma drugs (opioids).<\/p>\n From the CDC’s drug overdose page<\/a>:<\/p>\n From 2000 to 2014 nearly half a million Americans died from drug overdoses. Opioid overdose deaths, including both opioid pain relievers and heroin, hit record levels in 2014, with an alarming 14 percent increase in just one year, according to new data published today in CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.<\/p>\n The most commonly prescribed opioid pain relievers, those classified as natural or semi-synthetic opioids such as oxycodone and hydrocodone, continue to be involved in more overdose deaths than any other opioid type. These deaths increased by 9 percent (813 more deaths in 2014 than 2013).<\/p>\n