It has been widely reported that he was NOT a alcohol, drug using type. He DID come to use prescription pain meds, and got in over his head it appears.
That’s my understanding too. Had been taking Percocet for years and became addicted and then got ahold of (or was prescribed) stronger and stronger drugs like the fentanyl he OD’d on.
The most widespread abuse of prescription pain meds, occurs with silver haired senior citizens, like ME.
As to the senior citizens, anecdotally, my brother and his wife recently moved here to PA from NJ where they had been living in a large retirement community near the Jersey Shore (lots of them in that area).
One day he and my SIL were at the local liquor store. Neither are big drinkers but IIRC were buying a bottle of wine for dinner – maybe their anniversary? My brother noticed the large number of seniors in the store, some with grocery carts stocking up on cheap brandy and whisky. None of them looked like your typical boozers however if you know what I mean. My brother asked the liquor store owner and he told my brother that they were stocking up on their pain meds. He told my brother that according to what many of his elderly customers had told him, doctors were becoming more and more reluctant to prescribe opioid pain meds for chronic conditions like severe arthritis or even to cancer patients because of the scrutiny they were now under, the risk of losing their medical license if they wrote too many scripts for opioids, so those in chronic pain were using booze for pain relief.
And finally many of the opioids are mixed with Tylenol, and warnings are given about how much Tylenol to ingest, for it too can kill you.
Take those warnings very seriously. I know of a young man, legitimate opioid prescription for severe spinal injury, got strung out, took too much. And guess what? It wasn't the pain med which killed him. It was the Tylenol.
So sorry to hear that.
As I understand (and I could be wrong), but one of the reasons opioids like Oxycodone and Percocet contain Tylenol (acetaminophen) is to discourage people from taking too much and overdosing. It could also be to increase the effectiveness of the drug without using as much opioids. Maybe both.
But in any case, the toxicity and danger of too much acetaminophen, enough to cause liver damage, is typically but not always, when people take a drug already containing acetaminophen and then take an OTC like Tylenol and or consume alcohol in large quantities at the same time or very recently before or after. This also sometimes happens with OTC cold and flu and some allergy meds – people may not know that the OTC cough med they bought also contains Tylenol and take Tylenol for aches and fever. Always check the labels.
http://www.knowyourdose.org/common-medicines/
There is a second epidemic, which is heroin. This is more so with younger people. First prescription pain meds, from whatever source. But eventually leads to heroin which is cheaper and easier to obtain.
I live in central PA and have been working in a very small and quaint town in rural Lancaster County. I was shocked to learn how prevalent heroin is there. My former boss had two great nieces who had recently graduated from HS when I started working there a few years ago, they fortunately never got into drugs but told their great aunt how cheap and readily available it was, how it was nearly openly sold in their HS, and how many people they knew, kids from middle and upper middle class families, good church going families, who got hooked and how it often started with taking opioid pills, sometimes stolen from the family medicine cabinet.
It is such a difficult problem. On one hand I don’t think people with severe pain should be left to suffer. I’ve even heard of cases were late stage terminal cancer patients could not get opioids except in a hospital or in hospice care because of the concern of “addiction”. Chronic pain can sometimes be alleviated by means other than opioids like physical therapy or steroid injections or even non-traditional thinks like acupuncture, massage or radiofrequency ablation but that doesn’t always work.
On the other hand, there is an epidemic of opioid (and heroin) abuse and some unscrupulous doctors who prescribe opioids out like candy give refills without concern regarding addiction or recognizing the signs. Then again addicts can be very slick about covering up their addition and do things like Dr. and pharmacy shopping.
I don't have an answer.
