

According to research from the Washington, DC-based nonprofit organization, Trust for America’s Health, popular prescription drugs like Vicodin, Xanex and Adderall are now responsible for killing more Americans than the combined killswitch cocktail of cocaine and heroin.

Statistics show that state of West Virginia ranks highest in the nation for drug overdose deaths, with nearly 30 documented pill-bottle fatalities per 100,000 people in 2010, followed by New Mexico and Kentucky -- both states respectively illustrating almost 24 overdose deaths per 100,000 residents.

With that being said, it should come as no surprise that recent data from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention indicates that approximately half of the American population are caught up in taking at least one of the prescription drugs known to claim the lives of more than 100,000 Americans every year.

The centralized war nerve of this drug-induced epidemic seems to lie in America’s problematic lust for painkillers: opioids like hydrocodone and oxycodone are reportedly some of the most heavily abused medications prescribed today.

And while adults between the ages of 20 and 59 are itching to get their hands on those little brown bottles containing Percocet, Vicodin and OxyContin, the American teenager is being raised a speed freak -- taking alarming amounts of amphetamine like Ritalin and Adderall, which are used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Medical experts say that having an honest and open line of communication with your physician is imperative to lowering the risk factors involved with taking prescription drugs.

Remember, just because a drug was purchased legally down at the local pharmacy and has a label on the bottle with your name on it, does not mean the contents are not extremely dangerous, and even fatal, if abused.

Why not stick with pot? It works and no one has ever died. Except this guy.
