Drug Crisis in Muskogee
Muskogee, Oklahoma is the epicenter of the drug crisis in Oklahoma.
Muskogee County in Oklahoma ranks in the top five counties for prescription drug opioid deaths for a period from 2007 through 2015. Prescription drug overdoses kill more Oklahomans than motor vehicle crashes says the State of Oklahoma Health Department. Prescription painkillers and opioids are the most common class of drugs involved in overdose deaths in Oklahoma according to the state agency report. In fact, opioids are involved in more than 80% of the prescription drug-related overdose deaths.
The 2016 U.S. County prescribing rates issued by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention indicate that the rate for Muskogee County is 38% higher than the state average and has the eighth highest in the state. This equates to 122.9 prescriptions per 100 people
It may surprise you to note that more overdose deaths involve FDA approved and physician prescription painkillers than alcohol and all illicit drugs combined. Which means that most of the drugs causing overdose deaths aren’t getting sold by shady street drug dealers, but rather, it’s being prescribed by doctors and nurse practitioners, all the while big pharma racks in billions of dollars.
With so many people dying from an overdose, one might ask why the government hasn’t done more to educate doctors about the risks of opioid painkillers and the likely answer is money. Big Pharma dumped close to 2.5 Billion dollars into lobbying and funding members of Congress over the past decade, possibly preventing any real meaningful legislation to come from that government body.
The Oklahoma State Government is, however, doing something about the issue. For example, the Oklahoma State Department of Health is hosting education seminars for doctors across Oklahoma. As well, Oklahoma Attorney Mike Hunter has sued the drug companies and said that “drug companies are culpable for the tragic, heartbreaking number of Oklahomans who have become addicted or who have died as a result of the opioid epidemic in our state.”
Nonprofit groups licensed by the State of Oklahoma such as Narconon Arrowhead Drug and Alcohol Rehab are working to get Oklahomans off opioids and restore them to a drug-free life. Narconon is one of the leading drug rehab programs getting results and for the past 50 years has proven time and time again that when a person can identify and confront the reason that they became addicted, they can restore themselves to a natural, drug-free lifestyle.
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