| ■ 1,013 Americans Overdosed on Illegal Painkiller | 2008.07.29 |
| Between early April 2005 and late March 2007, 1,013 Americans died after overdosing on an illegal version of the powerful prescription painkiller fentanyl, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report published Thursday. "This was really an epidemic," report co-author Dr. Steven Marcus, executive director of New Jersey's poison control center, told the Associated Press. The number of deaths slowed after a fentanyl operation in Toluca, Mexico was shut down by authorities in May 2006. "It almost disappeared entirely. The shutting down of the Toluca facility was probably a major factor," lead author Dr. T. Stephen Jones, a consultant retired from the CDC, told the AP. The study appears in the this week's issue of the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Fentanyl is often prescribed for cancer patients. Illegal versions of the drug are sold as a powder, often mixed with cocaine or heroin, and sometimes used as a heroin replacement, the AP reported. |