Originally published May 12 2015
One class of Big Pharma medication kills more people in NYC annually than homicides
by Jonathan Benson, staff writer
(NaturalNews) The latest statistics show that the deadly street drug heroin is now responsible for killing more people in New York City than homicides, a startling fact that's sparking fresh concerns about what some fear might be a "comeback" of the use of this crude opiate drug. But comparatively speaking, more New Yorkers are dying from the use of everyday pain medications than they are from heroin or homicides, based on national statistics, an even more concerning fact.
The New York Daily News (NYDN) recently reported that, based on 2013 data (which is the latest available), heroin overdoses killed 420 people, compared to the 335 people that were murdered in NYC during the same year. According to the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), the prevalence of heroin in the Big Apple is supposedly higher now than it was even during the epidemics of the 1970s and 1980s (which could just be the agency trying to legitimize its existence amidst the rapid legalization of cannabis nationwide).
In any case, the point is that heroin-related deaths now outpace homicides in the city that never sleeps, and some media sources are up in arms about this. And yet these same media sources are oddly silent about the more than 16,000 people that die every year in the U.S. as a result of prescription painkiller use, which translated to the population of NYC represents more deaths than the number associated with either homicide or heroin.
Roughly eight people die in NYC from some kind of pharmaceutical for every one person murdered
According to a 2014 report issued by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), about 46 people die every single day in America as a result of painkiller overdoses, a figure that is far higher than the number of heroin overdoses being reported in NYC. The population of NYC is about 8.5 million people, or just over 2.6% of the national population. If you divide this out, this translates to about 442 deaths every year in NYC from prescription painkillers.
These are just the reported deaths, of course -- many pharmaceutical-related deaths don't even make it into the system and are blamed on other causes, so the actual number is likely far higher. But it still demonstrates how the media's up-in-arms response to the number of deaths associated with crude opiate use (heroin) is hypocritical in light of the many more deaths associated with prescription heroin (opioid painkiller) use.
This same CDC report notes that more than 12 million Americans now use prescription painkillers on a regular basis, with the bulk of this use in Southern states like Alabama and West Virginia (followed closely by several Midwest states). It also highlights how prescription painkillers now kill more people across the board than the number of deaths associated with both heroin and cocaine combined!
Interestingly, these statistics only look at the number of deaths associated with one class of drugs -- prescription painkillers. When you cover the full gamut of pharmaceutical offerings, the death rate is substantially higher, likely topping 100,000 deaths annually and possibly more, based on statistics gathered and compiled in the book Our Daily Meds by Melody Petersen.
Translated just to NYC, this suggests more than 2,600 pharmaceutical-related deaths among New Yorkers every year, or roughly eight pharmaceutical-related deaths in NYC for every one homicide. This is a staggering comparison that illustrates once again how the legal drug cartel is among the most dangerous industries in the country.
Sources:
http://www.independent.co.uk
http://www.thedailybeast.com
http://www.alternet.org
http://www.healthline.com
http://www.cdc.gov
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com
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