New Report on Nonmedical Use of Pain Relievers

Misuse of prescription drugs is second only to marijuana as the nation's most prevalent drug problem. The annual average number of people using pain relievers nonmedically for the first time in the past 12 months has exceeded the number of new marijuana users since 2002. Accordingly, misuse of prescription pain relievers has been cited as a growing public health problem.

The following are brief findings in the report:

			Data from the 2004 to 2006 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) reports indicate that past-year nonmedical use of pain relievers ranged from a low of 2.48 percent in a ward of the District of Columbia to a high of 7.92 percent in northwest Florida.
			Of the 15 substate regions with the highest rates of nonmedical use of pain relievers, 10 were in southern states and 5 substate regions were in states in the West.
			Of the 15 substate regions with the lowest rates of nonmedical use of pain relievers, 7 substate regions were in southern states, 4 substate regions were in midwestern states, 3 substate regions were in northeastern states, and 1 substate region was in a western state.

Read the related news release

Nonmedical Use of Pain Relievers in Substate Regions: 2004 to 2006

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