Half of veterans who died from opioid overdoses also received benzos

I thought this was something especially sad to read about on this 4th of July.  This is as low as it gets. Big Pharma and the prescribing MDs should be forced to pay up and be put in jail.

PD

"Chalk another one up for Big Pharma concoctions killing people. This time, it’s veterans dying from overdoses. Of course, the prescribing M.D.’s are clearly just as much to blame, but how incredibly irresponsible is this? The study showed that half of veterans who overdosed using benzos were also being prescribed a class of drugs known as opioids, which include Vicodin, Percocet and OxyContin are commonly prescribed to veterans withdrawing from alcohol or having anxiety issues, among a few other things.

“The risk of receiving both opioids and benzodiazepines during this six-year period was approximately four times higher than in those who received opioids alone,” said Tae Woo Park, M.D., who led the study. “From a public health perspective, this is deeply troubling, because drug overdoses are a leading cause of death in the U.S. and prescribing benzodiazepines to patients taking opioids for pain is quite common. In 2010, 75 percent of pharmaceutical-related drug-overdose deaths involved opioids. As we learn more about pharmaceuticals and how they interact with each other, we can try to reduce the risk of harm to patients.”"

http://edgytruth.com/2015/07/03/half-of-war-veteran-overdoses-due-to-pharma-dr-malpractice/