PAINKILLER USE RISES SHARPLY

People in the U.S. are living in a world of pain -- and they are
popping pills at an alarming rate to cope with it.

The amount of five major painkillers sold at retail establishments
rose 90% from 1997 to 2005, according to an Associated Press analysis
of statistics from the Drug Enforcement Administration.

More than 200,000 pounds of codeine, morphine, oxycodone, hydrocodone
and meperidine were purchased at retail stores during the most recent
year represented in the data. That total is enough to give more than
300 milligrams of painkillers to every person in the country.

Oxycodone, the chemical used in OxyContin, is responsible for most of
the increase. Oxycodone use jumped nearly sixfold from 1997 to 2005.
The drug gained notoriety as "hillbilly heroin," often bought and
sold illegally in Appalachia, but it is a big seller in small cities
and their outskirts, including suburban St. Louis, Columbus, Ohio,
and Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

An aging population, heavy marketing by drug makers and changes in
pain-management philosophy were among the reasons found for the
increase in medication.

As age increases, so does the need for pain medications. In 2000,
there were 35 million people older than 65. By 2020, the Census
Bureau estimates the number of elderly in the U.S. will reach 54 million.

Drug makers, meanwhile, have embarked on unprecedented marketing
campaigns. Spending on drug marketing has gone from $11 billion in
1997 to nearly $30 billion in 2005, congressional investigators
found. Profit margins among the leading companies routinely have been
three and four times as high as in other Fortune 500 industries.