Louisiana is one of eight states that has more opioid prescriptions than it has residents, Gannett Louisiana and WWL-TV reports. The state has the sixth highest prescription-per-capita rate at 1.03 pain-killer prescriptions written per Louisiana resident in 2015, according to data recently investigated by The Associated Press and the Center for Public Integrity.
The over-prescription “crisis” is leading to addiction, more drug-related deaths and even higher insurance costs for the state, officials says.
The trend is found in neighboring Southern states, too. Alabama has the highest rate at 1.2 prescriptions per resident.
It is followed by Tennessee, West Virginia, Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Kentucky to round out the top eight, which are states with a rate higher than 1, according to figures from IMS Health, an information technology company.
The number of overdoses have quadrupled nationwide since 2000, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. The Trust for America’s Health, meanwhile, says the number of deaths caused by painkiller overdose has tripled in Louisiana since 1999. Louisiana recorded nearly 780 overdose deaths in 2014, USA Today reported in February.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse defines opioids as medications that relieve pain. Falling in this class are hydrocodone (like Vicodin), oxycodone (OxyContin, Percocet), morphine, codeine and other related drugs.
Dr. David Holcombe, regional administrator and medical director of the Office of Public Health Region VI in Central Louisiana, says over-prescribing is an “epidemic” that has been growing for decades.
“We have been building to this,” Holcombe says. “It didn’t happen by accident.”
It’s the result of a number of factors, beginning with aggressive advocacy from the pharmaceutical industry for these prescriptions as well as misinformation that opioids were not as addictive as other drugs.
