PAINKILLER ABUSE GROWS, STUDY SAYS

WASHINGTON - Reuters - More than 6 million Americans abused pain relievers
in 2001, a government survey published Thursday shows.

In response, the government is launching a modest advertising campaign aimed
at educating people about the risks of abusing prescription drugs, officials
said.

The growth is driven, in part, by the availability of new pain relievers
such as Oxycontin, the survey found. It was published by the Substance Abuse
and Mental Health Services Administration.

"The annual number of new users of pain relievers has been increasing since
the mid-1980s, from about 400,000 initiates to 2 million in 2000," said Dr.
Westley Clark, director of the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment at the
substance abuse administration.

The statistics come from the National Survey on Drug Abuse, which questions
people 12 and older about abuse of prescription drugs.

"In 2001, 36 million Americans have used prescription-type drugs
nonmedically at least once in their lifetime," the report reads. That means
16 percent of the population has taken a pill or injection for the high
rather than for a legitimate medical reason.

That 16 percent includes 3 million youths ages 12 to 17 and 7 million young
adults ages 18 to 25.

Teens, especially, may not realize that taking painkillers for fun can kill,
Clark said. "Opioids, which include pain relievers such as morphine,
codeine, Oxycontin and Demerol, may lead to severe respiratory depression,
possibly resulting in death," Clark said.