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Amid reports of record-high deaths from heroin linked to opiate pills like Oxycontin and Vicodin,a new study from the Annals of Internal Medicine sheds light on how absuers continue to stop up with pills. It finds that more than 90 percent of those who overdose on prescription opioids, receive prescriptions for the same medication after their overdose, or often from the same physician. Dr. Jessica Gregg, addictions medical director at Central City Concern in Portland -- a non profit that focuses on poverty and homelessness -- and the author of an editorial accompanying the study, says that there are currently no systems nor procedures in state for doctors to properly address and deal and with potential abusers.
Source: wnyc.org