West Virginia replaces Tennessee as No. 1 in prescription drug use (17.4 per person)

Charleston Daily Press ^ | 2/06/08

[Libloather]

17.4 prescriptions per capita

Holy smokes! That's an average?

[PurpleMan]

Probably all for free thanks to “Sheets” Byrd’s phederal pharmacy phreebiees.

Pretty soon instead of roads named after him, WV will have hundreds of “Robert Byrd Memorial Pharmacies”

[Bender2]

Re: 17.4 prescriptions per capita

And 93% of those prescriptions... are paid for by Senator Byrd's earmarks.

[BGHater]

I expect drug use to increase in Jan 09.

[dawn53]

I read the article and couldn’t quite figure out what the figured represented. Does that mean 17 different drugs (I’d have a hard time believing that), or say you take a certain Rx and have to get it refilled every month, would that count as 12 prescriptions?

[darkangel82]

Sheesh, and I haven’t been on prescription-anything since 1999.

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

I am 68 and I doubt if my total is 17!

[Red_Devil 232]

Is this why their delegates took the bribe from McCain and delivered their votes to the Huckster?

[Bender2]

Re: Sheesh, and I haven’t been on prescription-anything since 1999.

Gadzooks! Here... have a beer!

[Red_Devil 232]

I’ll have that beer!

[Bender2]

What? And have you drunkenly... parachuting all over the county!

[Red_Devil 232]

Jees! 17.4? Is anyone in the state ever conscious?

[Red_Devil 232]

Please! I’ll just jump once!

[WVNight]

Remember that WV has a lower total population with a higher percentage of elderly then other states. So as usual percentages do not always tell the tale.

[jdub]

I live in TN, and spend a significant amount of time in rural criminal courts. The dockets are clogged with prescription drug cases. Its amazing.

My wife is an ER nurse. Half her time is dealing with people faking symptoms to get pain meds. She dreads the days she works with the docs who get a reputation as "the candy-man". There is a whole industry of low income people supplementing their income by coming up with a plausible story for getting pain meds, then selling them.

The way we are having the wool pulled over our eyes by the growing underclass is unbelievable. The only thing worse is those who think the solution is to expand the program.

[WVNight]

No prescription that I’ve ever taken was free or “state” paid.

[lepton]

It seems kindof an odd metric. Some medicines for chronic conditions have prescriptions which are re-issued every month - while others only annually or semi-annually.

I know when I go to the doctor for some things, I often get 3-4 prescriptions, the longest of which I take for no more than a total of 10 days, and the shortest for a couple of days.

[Slip18]

"Is this why their delegates took the bribe from McCain and delivered their votes to the Huckster?"

ROTFLMAO!

[jmyrlefuller]

But... but... we can’t have our little old ladies having to choose which prescription they need over any other? Perish the thought! We need free prescriptions for all, whatever they need! < /sarcasm>... (although I wouldn’t be surprised if Hillary or Obama actually would say something like that)

This is what universal health care gets you— people will take up these prescription drugs because they’re free (or cheap) and the TV tells them they need it. The result is a bunch of drugged up old coots. They need to think to themselves: “Do I really need to be medicating myself this heavily?”

Part of the health care crisis is the “unnecessary health care” crisis.

[Clemenza]

So much of WV these days is practically an outdoors old age home. Same goes for central PA.