Mary Bono Mack has seen the danger of prescription drugs first hand – her late husband, Sonny Bono, her son and her stepdaughter were abusers. Today, from her seat in the U.S. Congress, she is fighting back.
By Rep. Mary Bono Mack
It started out as a typically quiet day in Medford, New York. But at 10:20 a.m. on June 19 this year, Father’s Day, a man walked into the Haven Drugs pharmacy and murdered four people for 11,000 tablets of hydrocodone – an opioid used to manufacture a long list of narcotic pain killers, including Vicodin.
One of those gunned down was a customer, 33-year-old Jamie Taccetta, who was engaged to be married. Instead, she was buried in her wedding dress. A pharmacy employee, 17-year-old Jennifer Mejia, was also killed and later buried in her prom dress along with her high school diploma.
This senseless tragedy is the latest and most horrific example of a growing wave of drug store robberies by prescription drug addicts.
But it’s also part of a larger, rapidly escalating struggle nationwide against prescription drug abuse and addiction, which is expected to claim the lives of tens of thousands of Americans this year alone.
Why is it happening? Scientists tell us that childhood trauma, genetics, mental disorders, depression, stress, anxiety, thrill seeking, peer pressure, severe pain from injuries and illnesses and even the horrors of combat all contribute to prescription drug addictions, which can lead to tragic and avoidable deaths.
But what’s even more insidious is the way these powerfully addictive narcotic prescription drugs quickly turn people without any real emotional or physical problems into desperate people suddenly facing life-or-death struggles. Few things are more destructive.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, drug overdose is the second leading cause of accidental death in the United States – in large part due to prescription drug abuse. And the problem is growing every single day.
According to a recent national survey, some 7 million people age 12 or older regularly abuse prescription drugs, and there are approximately 7,000 new abusers every day – many of them teenagers and young adults. That alarming trend is taking a huge toll on society.
Today, the abuse of prescription drugs – especially painkillers, stimulants and depressants – is the fastest-growing drug problem in America. As someone who has been deeply and personally affected by this issue, I believe there needs to be a national awakening about the threat this alarming epidemic poses to our families and our communities.
Day to day struggle
For starters, we need to do a better job of monitoring and limiting access to prescription drugs containing controlled-release oxycodone hydrochloride, including the popular painkiller OxyContin.
Originally, OxyContin was intended to be prescribed only for severe pain as a way to help patients dealing with late-stage cancer and other severe illnesses. Today, however, more and more people across America are being prescribed OxyContin, as well as other generic oxycodone drugs, for less severe reasons – clinically known as moderate pain – greatly expanding the availability and potential for abuse of these powerfully-addictive narcotics.
How serious is the problem today? Well, a recent report by the National Institute on Drug Abuse found that nearly 1 in 20 high school seniors have reported abuse of OxyContin.
For people all across America, prescription drug abuse is a day-to-day struggle. Over time, it can destroy families and wreak havoc on communities. Someone with a toothache or a sore back should not be prescribed a potentially addictive painkiller.
Clearly, expanded public education plays a role in addressing this problem, but we’re not going to make any real progress until we limit access to these powerful narcotic drugs and ensure that only patients in severe pain can obtain them. Today, I have legislation pending in Congress to accomplish this goal.
The pervasiveness of prescription drug abuse made national headlines recently when federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, led by the Drug Enforcement Administration, cracked down on so-called “pill mills” in Florida, resulting in dozens of arrests – including five doctors.
Congress needs to make it much more difficult for these rogue pain clinics to operate, and we should treat offenders like any other street drug dealer. By better coordinating the efforts of local, state and national agencies – and by reducing the supply of highly addictive opioid painkillers – I am convinced that we can eventually save thousands of lives and spare millions of American families from the heartache of addiction.
No child should ever be buried in a prom dress because we ignored the problem.
Rep. Mary Bono Mack, R-CA, is Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade and serves as Honorary Chairman of Mothers Against Prescription Drug Abuse (MAPDA).
