'US drug industry, doctors contribute to overdose deaths'
The US pharmaceutical and health industry as well as economic distress are largely responsible for the surge in drug overdose deaths across the country, an American writer and retired professor says.
“Many doctors overprescribe painkillers because they have relationships with pharmaceutical companies and they get pay offs,” said James Petras, a professor emeritus of sociology at Binghamton University in Binghamton, New York, and adjunct professor at Saint Mary's University in Halifax, Nova Scotia in Canada.
“Secondly, the pharmaceutical companies themselves directly advertise their painkillers and make it easy for people to access them,” Petras told Press TV on Sunday.
The depressed economic situation in many parts of the US also contributes to drug addiction among the unemployed and poor,” Petras noted.
Moreover, many people cannot afford appropriate medication to treat their pains and ailments and resort to the abuse of opioid pain relievers and heroin, he added.
Drug overdose deaths increased sharply across the United States to the highest level since at least 1970, according to a new government report.
Overdose deaths in 2014 surged in 14 states and surpassed 47,000 across the country, up 7 percent from the previous year, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Friday.
The rising deaths were largely due to disturbing increases in the abuse of prescription painkillers and heroin use, the report said.
The report warned of a surging opioid "epidemic" that is ripping American families and communities apart.
"The increasing number of deaths from opioid overdose is alarming," said CDC Director Tom Frieden.
Drug overdoses have killed almost half a million people in the United States from 2000 to 2014, and the rate of opioid overdoses has tripled since 2000.
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