Fast Facts About Prescription Painkiller Abuse

• Over the past decade-and-a-half, the number of teen and young adult (ages 12 to 25) new abusers of prescription painkillers such as oxycodone (OxyContin®) or hydrocodone (Vicodin) has grown five-fold (from 400,000 in the mid-eighties to 2 million in 2000).
• Annual OxyContin® use was reported in 2003 by 4.5 percent of 12th-graders, 3.6 percent of 10th-graders, and 1.7 percent of 8th-graders. The annual prevalence rate for Vicodin was considerably higher than for OxyContin®, at 10.5 percent in 12th-graders, 7.2 percent in 10th-graders, and 2.8 percent in 8th-graders in 2003. Considering the addictive potential of oxycodone and hydrocodone, these are disturbingly high rates of use, contrasting with an annual prevalence of less than 1 percent in all three grades for heroin, for instance.
• Data from SAMHSA's Drug Abuse Warning Network show that visits to emergency departments increased significantly from 1994 to 2001 for narcotic prescription pain relievers. Visits naming oxycodone increased 352%; methadone, 230%; morphine, 210%; and hydrocodone, 131%. The data also show that many people were using more than one drug.
• The number of lifetime nonmedical users of Oxycontin ®, aged 12 or older, was 1.9 million in 2002 and rose to 2.8 million in 2003.

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