The State of Alabama is used to topping the list of college football powerhouses, but a recent study also places the Yellowhammer State at the top of a much less desirable list.
According to research conducted by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Alabamians take more narcotic painkillers than residents of any other state in the nation. In fact, doctors in Alabama doled out three times as many prescription painkillers than doctors in Hawaii, the lowest prescribing state.
“The bottom line is we’re not seeing consistent, effective, appropriate prescribing of painkillers across the nation, and this is a problem because of the deaths that result,” Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the CDC, said at a news conference.
Friedman added that healthcare providers in the United States wrote an astounding 259 million prescriptions in 2012 for “powerful painkillers” like oxycodone, methadone, and hydrocodone.
“That’s enough for every American adult to have their own bottle of pills,” he said.
But it’s not just an Alabama problem. The South as a whole is much more reliant on prescription painkillers than Americans in other parts of the country.
Ten of the country’s highest prescribing states are in the South, with Alabama, Tennessee and West Virginia topping the list.
46 Americans die every day from an overdose of prescription painkillers.
For more information, check out this CBS report.
Follow Cliff on Twitter @Cliff_Sims
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