claim: in america, "more people die from" prescription narcotic painkillers "than from heroin and cocaine combined."
author: brad schimel
evidence_1: nov 1, 2011 ... prescription painkiller overdoses at epidemic levels. kill more americans than  heroin and cocaine combined. the death toll from overdoses of ...
evidence_2: total u.s. drug deaths* - more than 72,000 americans died from drug ...  included in this number are opioid analgesics, along with heroin and illicit ...  national overdose deaths—number of deaths involving prescription opioid  pain relievers ... number of u.s. overdose deaths involving cocaine in  combination with other ...
evidence_3: nov 1, 2011 ... deaths from prescription painkillers* have reached epidemic levels in the ... is  now greater than those of deaths from heroin and cocaine combined. ... this is  more than 3 times the 4,000 people killed by these drugs in 1999.
evidence_4: in the us alone, more than 15 million people abuse prescription drugs, more  than the ... of the 22,400 drug overdose deaths in the us in 2005, opioid  painkillers were ... cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and amphetamines (39%)  combined.
evidence_5: painkillers – 3.3 million users; tranquilizers – 2 million users; stimulants – 1.7  million users; sedatives – 0.5 million users1. more people report using controlled  prescription drugs than cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine combined. ...  percent of all us opioid overdose deaths.8; in 2016, more than 46 people died  each ...