In a special investigation, SoCal Connected correspondent Michael Okwu reports on the fastest-growing drug problem in the nation.
With the death toll continuing to climb, the abuse of prescription drugs has now overtaken car accidents as the leading cause of accidental deaths in America, causing more fatalities than cocaine and heroin combined.
Okwu interviews a Palm Desert mother whose son, despite warning pharmacists and doctors about his prescription pill addiction, died from an overdose.
Okwu then speaks with a group of recovering young people from Orange County who share their own stories and are eager to warn others of the risk. He also accompanies an undercover investigator to the downtown streets of Los Angeles to see how easy it is to buy pills on the black market.
The episode airs February 17 at 9 p.m. and an encore presentation of “RX Danger” airs Saturday at 6 p.m., Sunday at 1 p.m. and 6:30 p.m., and Monday at 10 p.m., on KCET.
In Accidental Deaths From Prescription Drug Abuse and Overdose Rising, Sunset Malibu says “Recent research from the US government suggests that at least five million previously-addiction-free Americans are abusing prescription drugs for the first time each year. Some addiction researchers are going so far as to call pharmaceutical medication abuse an unseen epidemic.”
In a new book “Addict Nation,” TV host Jane Velez-Mitchell asks Is Celebrity Prescription Drug Abuse Foreshadowing a National Epidemic?
