A 12-year-old girl in New York died of a methadone overdose after taking pills she got from a 15-year-old friend. The friend took the pills from his dad's drawer and he, the girl, and another friend all took some together.

"[Investigator Charles] Lopez said the boy told him he and a male friend each took two pills, and [the girl] downed about four. The boy told Lopez he soon felt sick and went home, leaving [the girl] with his friend..."

The boy is facing several criminal charges. Methadone overdoses have increased dramatically in the United States, a trend that is mostly blamed on the drug's increased use as a painkiller. Source: A.M. New York

Labels: criminal_charges, over-the-counter-drugs, overdose

The Center for Disease Control, after reviewing death certificates from 1999 to 2004, has determined that accidental overdose is now the nation's leading cause of accidental death. They attribute the rise, in part, to an increase in prescriptions for drugs like oxycontin and vicodin.

"'The broadest newest development in substance abuse in America is the intentional abuse of medicine,' said Stephen Pasierb of the Partnership for a Drub Free America. 'It's gone from subset to a whole tier of abuse.'"

This new tier of substance abuse is more common than the use of heroin, cocaine and ecstasy, and is believed to have contributed to a 113% rise in teenage fatal drug overdoses. Read more at WSAW.com.

Labels: overdose, prescription drugs