John M. Talmadge, M.D.

A Blog Covering Many Topics

Three Articles on Addiction

Painkiller Misuse in U.S. Doubled in Decade
Over 4 percent of adults reported non-medical use of drugs like OxyContin in 2012-2013, and the problem worsens.

Read the entire article here.

More bad news from the U.S. drug wars: Misuse of prescription opioid painkillers by American adults more than doubled from the early 2000s to 2013, a new government study says.

Rates of addiction to powerful painkillers such as OxyContin and Vicodin also swelled during that time, according to the U.S. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA).

Who Gets Addicted to Prescription Drugs?

It's hard to know how many people in the nation are hooked on prescription drugs. That’s because only overdoses can be easily tracked. But based on those numbers, experts think that more than 8 and half million Americans abuse such meds. And they often start young. About 8% of high-school seniors said they used the painkiller hydrocodone for nonmedical reasons during the past year.

There’s no way to know who will become addicted. Some people use prescription pain pills -- and even misuse them for a short time -- but don’t become hooked.

Read the entire article here.

What Is Medical Marijuana?

Medical marijuana is any part of the marijuana plant that you use to treat health problems. People use it to get relief from their symptoms, not to try to get high.

Most marijuana that's sold legally as medicine has the same ingredients as the kind that people use for pleasure. But some medical marijuana is specially grown to have less of the chemicals that cause feelings of euphoria.

See the slide show on medical marijuana here.