I read an article about a recent study published in the British Medical Journal which studied the increase in opiate deaths associated with the abuse of opioid pain killers and buprenorphine addiction in particular. Deaths from this abuse increase from 4,041 in 1999 to 14,459 in 2007 and are more common than deaths from skin cancer, HIV, or alcoholic liver cancer. In America, these pain killers are now commonly prescribed for chronic pain. The researchers suggest that Doctors refrain from prescribing these pain killers for pain as the risks outweigh the benefits.

Furthermore, the researchers believe between 1.4 and 1.9 million German people are addicted to these pain killers. They also found that in England and Whales deaths from abuse of these pain killers doubled between 2004 and 2009, yet deaths from heroin and morphine drug addiction remained the same. In 5 to 10 years the death rate from abuse of these prescription opiates will be the same as in Canada and the United States.