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Pain, regardless of cause, is among the most common of health ailments. Unfortunately, Americans in particular are succumbing to drug addiction in record numbers as a result of short-sighted and financially-driven drug marketing.

More than 70 million prescriptions for non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are written each year, and according to 2010 data,1 there were enough narcotic painkillers being prescribed in the US to medicate every single adult, around the clock, for a month.

By 2012, a whopping 259 million prescriptions for opioids and other narcotic painkillers were written in the US,2 which equates to 82.5 prescriptions for every 100 Americans. And those narcotics are responsible for 46 deaths each and every day…

Americans use the most opioids of any nation-twice the amount used by Canadians, who come in second place in terms of prescriptions.3 The problem has become noticeable enough that US officials now warn that narcotic painkillers are a driving force in the rise of substance abuse and lethal overdoses.