Legal Drugs Kill More Than Illegal Drugs

[Guide]

It was surprising to me to discover that legal drugs now kill more people than illegal drugs.

Legal Drug related deaths number 100,000 in the US. That's a million deaths in ten years. This is according to the FDA, the watch dog for Legal Drugs:

http://www.fda.gov/Drugs/Development.../ucm114848.htm

According to Natural News, "Some experts estimate it should be more like 200,000 because of underreported cases of adverse drug reactions."

http://www.naturalnews.com/009278.html#ixzz1vpHUiTFM

According to a report in 2007, "Deaths due to [prescription] overdoses are the most prominent cause of drug-related mortality in death certificate data."

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17536879

NPR: Prescription Drug Deaths Major Killer In The U.S.

http://www.npr.org/2011/09/27/140849...ler-in-the-u-s

According to the Office of National Drug Control Policy, "In 1997, the latest year for which death certificate data are published, there were 15,973 drug-induced deaths in America."

https://www.ncjrs.gov/ondcppubs/publ.../chap2_10.html

Mercola had an article with the subheading, ""Pharmageddon" is Upon Us":

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/ar...ath-in-us.aspx

Fox News had an article about this same subject with smaller numbers reported:

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/1...ths-skyrocket/

Scientific American: Prescription Drug Deaths Increase Dramatically

http://www.scientificamerican.com/ar...on-drug-deaths

USA Today article: Prescriptions now biggest cause of fatal drug overdoses

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/...overdose_N.htm

The Inquistr: Drug Use Now Kills More People Than Traffic Accidents [study]

http://www.inquisitr.com/142881/drug...cidents-study/

The number of drug related deaths due to illegal drugs is far less than those caused by legal drugs. This is not only in the USA but also globally. Sources cited below show the death toll on illegal drugs at around 200,000, GLOBALLY. The above figures show that prescription drugs kill 100,000 in the USA alone. Surely the number of prescription drug related deaths globally is far higher. Finding global statistics for prescription drug related deaths due to Adverse Drug Reactions (ADRs) is difficult to find. But this is what I have found so far:

According to Los Angeles times, "In 2004 the World Health Organization reported that globally there were 5.1 million deaths due to tobacco use, 2.25 million from alcohol and 250,000 from illegal drug use."

http://articles.latimes.com/2012/jan...g-use-20120105

Other sources list global deaths from illegal drug use between 200,000 to 250,000 annually.

http://www.myhealthnewsdaily.com/207...ug-deaths.html

http://news.yahoo.com/illegal-drugs-...024206539.html

http://www.who.int/healthinfo/global...eport_full.pdf

The statistics on deaths due to drugs can be suspect because "vital statistics underestimate the rates of prescription and illicit drugs because the type of drug is not specified on many death certificates" according to this report by the CDC:

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6043a4.htm