STATISTICS
- According to a survey of coroners and medical examiner, OxyContin has caused or contributed to at least 92 deaths during 2001 in the eight county Philadelphia region, up from 2000.
- In South Jersey, fatalities increased from 15 in 2000, to 24 in 2001 across Burlington, Camden, and Gloucester Counties.
- The supply of OxyContin is soaring. Sales of OxyContin, first marketed in 1996, hit $1.2 BILLION last year.
- The Federal Drug Enforcement Administration announced in April that OxyContin may have played a role in 464 deaths across the US in 2000 to 2001.
- According to Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration (SAMHSA) Drug Abuse Warning Network Emergency room mentions of OxyCodone increased 89% between 1993 and 1999. Recently we have seen an increase of 68% with 10,825 emergency room mentions in 2000.
- The illegal use of OxyContin as well as other prescription drugs has increased recently the 1999 NHSDA showed that approx. 9% of the US population (19.9 MILLION people) have used pain relievers illegally in their lifetime.
- An estimated 1.6 MILLION Americans have used prescriptioin type pain relievers non-medically for the first time in 1998. This represents a significant increase since the 1980s.
- Indicators used to produce the Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) study show that the abuse of OxyContin, the active ingredient in the pain medication OxyContin has increased greatly in recent years.
- The numbers of Oxycodone emergency department metnions increased from 3,369 in the first half of 1999 to 5,261 in the first half of 2000.
- The total number of emergency department mentions form oxycodone in 1999 (6,429) was up from 3,190 mentions in 1996.
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