Painkillers open way to high-risk behaviours

Indiscriminate use of painkillers may open the way to drug abuse among people with a history of using both types of drugs, a study says. The study was conducted by Drexel University's School of Public Health, Philadelhia in the US.
“Access to prescription medications — either from a participant's own source, a family member, or a friend — was a key feature of initiation into prescription drug misuse,” Stephen Lankenau, the study investigator said. Researchers interviewed 50 young intravenous drug users aged between 16 and 25 years, who had misused a prescription drug at least three times in the past three months, to study contextual factors leading to their use of opioid drugs.