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CDC Ranks Oklahoma 5th In The Nation In Painkiller Prescription Rate

Centers for Disease Control And Prevention
Oklahoma ranked lower than only Alabama, Tennessee, West Virginia, and Kentucky in the number of opioid painkillers prescribed to residents.

A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows Oklahoma tied for fifth in the nation in the rate  of painkillers prescribed to its residents.

The CDC says Oklahoma doctors wrote about 128 opioid pain reliever prescriptions, drugs like oxycodone and hydrocodone, per 100 state residents.

In an interview with The Oklahoman's Jaclyn Cosgrove, State Department of Health Commissioner Terry Cline blames the ranking on Oklahoma doctors writing too many prescriptions.

In the past 12 years, Oklahoma has seen the overall number of overdose deaths from prescription drugs more than double, and the number of deaths because of hydrocodone and oxycodone more than quadruple. Overdose deaths now surpass motor vehicle crashes as the leading cause of unintentional injury in the state and are the leading cause of death by injury for Oklahomans ages 25 to 64. An estimated 5 percent of Oklahoma’s residents older than 11 — about 164,000 people — are abusing prescription narcotics, according to a recent federal survey. Oklahoma ranked eighth among the states for nonmedical use of prescription painkillers.

534 people died in Oklahoma from unintentional prescription drug overdoses two years ago...and about half of those died taking medication their doctors had prescribed.

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Brian Hardzinski is from Flower Mound, Texas and a graduate of the University of Oklahoma. He began his career at KGOU as a student intern, joining KGOU full time in 2009 as Operations and Public Service Announcement Director. He began regularly hosting Morning Edition in 2014, and became the station's first Digital News Editor in 2015-16. Brian’s work at KGOU has been honored by Public Radio News Directors Incorporated (PRNDI), the Oklahoma Association of Broadcasters, the Oklahoma Associated Press Broadcasters, and local and regional chapters of the Society of Professional Journalists. Brian enjoys competing in triathlons, distance running, playing tennis, and entertaining his rambunctious Boston Terrier, Bucky.
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