Ending the American Pill Epidemic

Drug overdoses—more than 60 percent of which involve opioids—are the number one cause of accidental death in America. Dr. Sanjay Gupta wants us to ask ourselves: How did we get here, and how do we kick the habit?

- DR. SANJAY GUPTA

Right around the time I was finishing my neurosurgery residency in 2000, the consumption of prescription pain pills, known as opioid analgesics, was growing at a staggering rate. Over the next decade, sales of these medications would quadruple and the United States would earn the dubious honor of becoming the most pain-medicated country in the world.

With less than five percent of the planet’s population, we were consuming 80 percent of its opioids and 99 percent of its hydrocodone by the year 2010. In the wake of these pain-pill prescriptions came lethal overdoses—one every 19 minutes on average. By 2014, overdoses—61 percent of which involved opioids—were overtaking traffic fatalities as the number one cause of accidental death in the U.S. It was an American epidemic, and it was fully manmade.

We got here on a winding road paved with good intentions, as well as downright greedy ones. One thing is certain: There’s plenty of blame to go around.

Our culture has become frighteningly accustomed to “a pill for every ill.” Nearly 40 percent of all Americans over the age of 65 take five or more medications, and every American fills 12 prescriptions a year on average. Far too many of them are for pain pills.