A Prescription For Life - How to Guide, Guard and Govern your family. Free community Forum Oct 14th 6:30-8 at Bell Tower Ballroom in RSM

A Prescription For Life

3 Gs: Guide, Guard and Govern Your Family

The Orange County Sheriff’s Department, Superior Court Judge, National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence – Orange County and the Orange County Department of Education will be holding four forums throughout Orange County this month. These presentations will provide families with tools and resources to give tips on guiding, protecting and setting boundaries with their families. The next forum will be held at the Bell Tower Ballroom Rancho Santa Margarita on Tuesday, October 14th from 6:30-8:00 pm. This forum is FREE to the public.

“Prescription drug abuse is a silent epidemic that is stealing thousands of lives and tearing apart communities and families across America, ” said Gil Kerlikowske, Director of National Drug Control Policy. “From day one, we have been laser–focused on this crisis by taking a comprehensive public health and public safety approach. All of us have a role to play. Health care providers and patients should be educated on the risks of prescription painkillers. And parents and grandparents can take time today to properly dispose of any unneeded or expired medications from the home and to talk to their kids about the misuse and abuse of prescription drugs. ”

In April, the Administration released a comprehensive action plan to address the national prescription drug abuse epidemic to reduce this public health burden.

The increased use of prescription painkillers for nonmedical reasons (without a prescription for the high they cause), along with growing sales, has contributed to the large number of overdoses and deaths. In 2010, 1 in every 20 people in the United States age 12 and older—a total of 12 million people—reported using prescription painkillers non-medically according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Based on the data from the Drug Enforcement Administration, sales of these drugs to pharmacies and health care providers have increased by more than 300 percent since 1999.

The death toll from overdoses of prescription painkillers has more than tripled in the past decade, according to an analysis in the CDC Vital Signs report released today from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This new finding shows that more than 40 people die every day from overdoses involving narcotic pain relievers like hydrocodone (Vicodin), methadone, oxycodone (OxyContin), and oxymorphone (Opana).

“Overdoses involving prescription painkillers are at epidemic levels and now kill more Americans than heroin and cocaine combined,” said CDC Director Thomas Frieden, M.D., M.P.H.

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