(4/3/2012)

By Mary Wisniewski
Reuters
March 27, 2012

Prescription drug abuse is the new scourge of rural America. It now leads to more deaths in the United States than heroin and cocaine combined, and rural residents are nearly twice as likely to overdose on pills than people in big cities, according to the Centers for Disease Control. While methamphetamine addiction has long been associated with small towns, prescription painkillers have overtaken meth as the most abused drugs in places such as southern Indiana, according to local authorities. More specifically, Opana is the hot new prescription drug of abuse.

View the full article: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/27/us-drugs-abuse-opana-idUSBRE82Q04120120327

Keywords: painkiller, Opana, new scourge, rural America