The time has come to stop this madness of using opiods as if they were aspirin. We, the people, control the flow of prescription drugs - by using them or not using them. Supply and demand - it's that simple. The pharmaceutical companies will always, and gladly supply us with their deadly drugs, if there is money to be made - and there is - LOTS of it! Doctors act as "middlemen" - overprescribing these drugs because of ignorance, apathy, or pressure and "freebies" from companies. We are the ones who must protect our children and seniors from abusing these drugs by simply NOT having them in our medicine cabinets or not accepting them from our doctors unless ABSOLUTELY necessary. WE decide. I liken these drugs to "lethal weapons" and to make them available to children could be construed as "negligence" or worse. And lawsuits will become the norm when it's your son who got his Oxy from his friend's parents' house and then died of an accidental overdose - and you need someone to blame. And isn't it sad, that it has to come to that before we actually start DOING something about this epidemic, which we OURSELVES have created??!!

What are the facts? Did the accidental overdoses occur when the medications were taken as directed? If not, it is an issue of following directions. If people can't follow directions, do we really want them in the gene pool?