[url]http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2007/02/28/prescription-pills.html[/url]

[B]Prescription drug abuse set to exceed use of illicit narcotics globally
Already outstripped traditional illegal drugs in parts of Europe, Africa and South Asia: report[/B]

[I]Abuse of prescription drugs is about to exceed the use of illicit street narcotics worldwide — and the shift has spawned a lethal new trade in counterfeit painkillers, sedatives and other medicines potent enough to kill, a global watchdog warned Wednesday.

Already, prescription drug abuse has outstripped traditional illegal drugs such as heroin, cocaine and Ecstasy in parts of Europe, Africa and South Asia, the UN-affiliated International Narcotics Control Board said in its annual report for 2006.

In the United States alone, the abuse of painkillers, stimulants, tranquilizers and other prescription medications has gone beyond "practically all illicit drugs with the exception of cannabis," with users increasingly turning to them first, the Vienna-based group said....

The INCB said the number of Americans abusing prescription drugs nearly doubled from 7.8 million in 1992 to 15.1 million in 2003. Among their prescription drugs of choice: the painkillers oxycodone, sold under the trade name OxyContin, and hydrocodone, sold as Vicodin and used by 7.4 per cent of college students in 2005.[/I]

Hey, if it worked for mommy... :eek:

Reminds me of that movie... Brain Candy.