I was watching a report on this last night, and they were trying to suggest that because we do use more prescription pain killers, it automatically means that we are a bunch of drug addicts. One doctor went so far as to ask, "when did the US become the most painful place in the world to live?" He suggested that doctors are over medicating.
They followed it up with some cop that had confiscated a prescription bottle of 50 pills, from a prescription of 60. The 50 were left overs that had not been used by the person prescribed to, and they were eventually stolen in a burglary, then recovered by the cop.
So, why were there 50 left over pills? It is simple. Today, insurance companies give much better deals on drugs if you have a 90 day script over a 3 day script. They practically give them away ($5 here) if you get the 90 gay script. Doctors are helping their patients get cheaper meds by prescribing more.
It skews the reality.
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