Pain Killers Leading Cause of Accidental Death

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that the number of overdose deaths from prescription pain killers is now greater than those from cocaine and heroine combined. . . . 

In 2008, overdoses of prescription pain killers killed nearly 15,000 people in the U.S. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Prescription Painkeller Overdoses in the US, November 2011).