In my post on the interactive map of US prescription opiate use trends provided by the Las Vegas Sun I initially missed the association with a three-part series on “The New Addiction”. This explains why the Sun came up with the map in the first place which I should have thought about a bit more. Bad DM!

At any rate there’s all kinds of interesting stuff in here such as a reader poll with only 53% of respondents (as of 7/22/08) saying it is “difficult” to persuade a doctor to provide a prescription for narcotics:

Jennifer Hilton says that after she had a tooth filled, her dentist handed her a prescription for Vicodin even though she was not complaining about pain. She bristled at the unsolicited prescription because she’s a program coordinator for an inpatient drug addiction program for adolescent girls that’s run by Westcare, a Las Vegas nonprofit that specializes in substance abuse treatment.

and a suggestion that the rising trend is all the fault of the American Pain Society in cahoots with BigPharma.

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