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"The abuse of prescription drugs is our nation's fastest-growing drug problem," Gil Kerlikowske, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, said in a statement.
The use of painkillers has grown in recent years as doctors tried to correct the traditional undertreatment of pain, and pharmaceutical companies ramped up marketing of new pain medications.
But many doctors and patients don't fully recognize the medications' dangers, said Susan Foster, a vice president at Columbia University's National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse.
"People believe they're safer because they're prescribed by doctors and approved by the FDA," she said.
The report is being published this week in a CDC publication, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
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Online:
The report: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/
[Associated
Press;
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