Drug abuse and drug addiction have been plaguing our society for decades and the most disturbing trend was the rapid and deadly spread methamphetamine from the mid-west throughout the country. But more recently, even the heavily methamphetamine saturated states throughout the west and mid-west have been struggling with an addiction monster no one saw coming. Prescription opiate pain killers have become the most abused drugs, second only to marijuana.

According to an article I recently read, Montana is having an especially difficult time with the abuse of prescription pain killers like Vicodin, OxyContin, Fentanyl, Percoset, Methadone, Morphine, and Norco. The inundation of pain killer addiction and the crime and health problems it brings to small communities like those found in Montana has taken a toll far worse than just addiction. Emergency rooms have reported 9 nine deaths from prescription opiate overdose in the first half of 2008 as compared to 6 deaths over the 2007 year. Many addicts steal and commit prescription fraud to obtain opiates for abuse, although there is another problem aiding in the spread of prescription opiate abuse and it comes down from a higher, more inconspicuous place. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, there were 40 million opiate prescriptions written in 1991 as compared to 180 million in 2007, which represents a 350% increase in opiate prescriptions written for a 19% increase in population. I find this to be amazingly disturbing, pointing a suspicious finger toward medical professionals who will write opiate prescriptions at the word of a patient.

Along with prescription fraud and doctors who maybe a little too “trusting” of their patients, younger addicts find their fix much closer to home in their parents’ unlocked and unmonitored medicine cabinets. This kind of addictive behavior is especially dangerous because with younger people, the only interest is getting high without any knowledge of dosing instructions or possible health risks, increasing the chances of fatal overdoses.

Unfortunately, states like Montana without a large market for drug treatment centers, addicts have an especially difficult time finding help to get sober once they have fallen victim to addiction. Geographically, Florida and California are home to over half of the addiction treatment centers in the country leaving states like Montana with virtually no market for quality drug treatment. This leaves addicts with state and county funded treatment, which typically carries long waiting lists and substandard care that may not include medical detox and others that can barely get addicts far beyond the detox phase. Most state funding towards addiction treatment is grossly underfunded and seriously overcrowded. It is most unfortunate that many addicts cannot get the help they really need because of the high costs associated with private treatment centers and the long waiting lists and inferior care associated with publicly funded treatment centers.

It’s to bad that with the growing population of addicts in our society, that more funds are not dedicated to helping addicts in need of treatment. Instead of help, addicts are faced with incarceration to sweat out the horrors of detox alone and figure out how to stay sober on their own. Hopefully, this new epidemic will be enough for extra funding to help addicts get better instead of locking them up and forgetting about the opiate addiction treatment problem gripping so much of our nation.