More people continue to be injured, killed by prescription drugs

More people continue to be injured, killed by prescription drugs

A record number of deaths and serious injuries associated with prescription drugs were reported in the first quarter of 2008.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration received 20,745 new cases of serious injuries during the first quarter, an increase of 38 percent over 2007. The number of deaths reported is 4,824, a 2.6-fold increase from the previous quarter.

For a second straight quarter, varenicline (Chantix, Champix), an aid to help stop smoking, accounted for more reported serious injuries than any other prescription drug, with a total of 1,001 new cases including 50 deaths, according to The Institute for Safe Medication Practices, an organization that educates healthcare providers and consumers about safe medication practices.

Ranked second in reported serious injuries was the blood thinner heparin, the subject of a major product recall after a potentially lethal contaminant was identified and traced to suppliers in China.

In the first quarter of 2008, the FDA received 779 reports of serious injury in which heparin was the principal suspect drug, including 102 deaths, the institute reported.

Acetaminophen, which had 160 reported deaths, and ibuprofen, with 114 reported deaths, are two of the most widely used drugs in the nation.

The findings in QuarterWatch are developed from analyzing new adverse drug event reports submitted to the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System.

Because reporting is voluntary, only a small fraction of adverse drug events that occur are reported to the FDA, or to drug manufacturers, which then investigate and forward reports to the agency. Also, while the sum of adverse event reports normally provides an overall adverse event profile for a drug, the individual reports themselves do not prove that the drug caused the event described, the institute said in its report.

Source (it's a blog) More people continue to be injured, killed by prescription drugs

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aint that crazy. add it up with 17000 scientific researches conducted on marijuana and that ol' long list that stormcrow has made, along with current budget pressures on law enforcement and we get the perfect situation for the two HR bills about marijuana to get some real good attention and perhaps some major support... especially if MA & MI pass their mj related proposals as well... God, could this really be possible or im just being dreamingly optimistic!? lol:D but i like to think positive, it helps me get along better

Glad to see this getting more attention. Prescription drugs are horrible. I've tried 4 different meds for arthritis and all of them gave me projectile vomiting.lol
Got a sister that has arthritis she pays $20 a month copay for a prescription that has 4 pills a month and costs $300 a pill. $1200 A MONTH!!. Unbelievable.
Here's even more reasons I don't like prescriptions.
Half of U.S. doctors often prescribe placebos - Health care - MSNBC.com

Yeah,I have tons of meds lying around,I need to throw them out,I have found a few that make me sick and one that was SOOOO BAD,alot of them really wreak havoc on my stomach.....but what else you gonna do,when there is no herbs and your desperate for relief?...it sucks that its a struggle to feel normal for some folks.

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Originally Posted by StickyfingahZ

Yeah,I have tons of meds lying around,I need to throw them out,I have found a few that make me sick and one that was SOOOO BAD,alot of them really wreak havoc on my stomach.....but what else you gonna do,when there is no herbs and your desperate for relief?...it sucks that its a struggle to feel normal for some folks.

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I'm confident the BOLD part of what u said should not be a problem by 10 years from now, I mean I'm really hopeful to the point i call it confident. if u count on baby steps too, for the past few years we have averaged 1 state per 1 year (excluding alaska which had mj+ laws long ago) if thats the case and i expect it to pick up momentum as well especially in north, the current 12 states (if im not wrong) with mmj laws will be 22-25 states by then, thats half of the union and its gotta put some sort of pressure on feds to ease up on mmj permanently

all we need is 8 years of liberal leaning supreme court. republicans would be alright, as long as they are original republicans working for individual rights and small govt, not the religious-conservatives who stick to "values" thus refuting any scientific or statistical data.