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.
Opana is the hot new prescription drug of abuse, sometimes with tragic consequences.
At least nine people have died so far this year from prescription drug overdoses in Scott County, Indiana. Most of the fatalities involved Opana, according to county coroner Kevin Collins.
